Research Excellence

NIH Grant Enables Outstanding Investigator to Advance Knowledge of Microbial Infections

June 30, 2025

Professor Clarissa Nobile investigates the mechanisms of biofilm infections that affect human health.

The National Institutes of Health are backing Professor Clarissa Nobile ’s mission to understand the mechanisms by which microbes form biofilms, specifically those that can be hazardous to human health. Biofilms are communities of microorganisms encased in protective matrices and are...

Q&A: How People Decide Whether to Comply with Public Health Orders

How do people decide whether to comply with public health directives around the COVID-19 pandemic, such as wearing masks, social distancing and staying at home? Whether to take such preventative...

UC Merced recently acquired the Ernest Lowe collection, a rich collection of images showcasing Central Valley farm-working communities in the 1960's.

Library Acquires Ernest Lowe Photography Collection Documenting 1960s Rural California Communities

In the 1960s, Ernest Lowe took his camera into the rural towns of California’s Central Valley, documenting the lives and struggles of farm-working communities. Sixty years later, these photos...

Pandemic Inspires Chemist to Open New Avenues of Research

Professor Michael Thompson doesn’t usually work in immunology or drug development. But his use of X-ray crystallography — research that visualizes the structures of protein molecules to...

Berhe Honored with Prestigious AGU Medal and Fellowship

Soil biogeochemistry Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe has been recognized by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) as one of this year’s recipients of the Joanne Simpson Medal for Mid-...

Professors Nancy Burke and Whitney Pirtle are the two newest MacArthur Foundation chairs at UC Merced.

Two MacArthur Foundation Chairs Awarded to Female SSHA Faculty

Two female faculty members of UC Merced’s School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts (SSHA) have been named the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation chairs, making four prestigious...

Researchers Seek to Understand Messy Proteins that are Critical to Cellular Function

Biophysical chemistry Professor Shahar Sukenik and the graduate students in his lab are trying to make sense out of what might seem to some to be chaos. They aim to better understand how a series of...

California deemed agriculture an essential business amid the COVID-19 pandemic, meaning many farm workers have worked during the harvest season under unusual and stressful conditions.

Public Health Professors Study COVID-19 Impact on Rural, Latinx Health

The coronavirus has impacted everyone in different ways and three public health professors are examining specifically how rural, Latinx communities in California have been affected in a new study...

Political Scientists Study Effects of Affluence in Newest Nature Publication

How does socioeconomic inequality affect people? Seeing expensive items such as cars, which function as signs of social class, can potentially influence people’s political behavior according...

Restoring State's Forests to Reduce Fire Risks Will Take Time, Money and Broad Commitment

School of Engineering professors Roger Bales and Martha Conklin have written a new article for The Conversation discussing the changes that need to be undertaken in land-management practices in...

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