Research Excellence

How Writing Rewires Your Brain to Face Everyday Challenges

February 11, 2026

AI-rendered of hand emerging from a box, holding a pen pressed against paper

Written words can do more than communicate. They can also unlock the writer’s ability to process distress, identify hurtful feelings and take control of personal conflict. Emily Johnston, a writing studies professor at UC Merced, has researched how the act of writing rewires the brain to...

Two engineering professors and a graduate student received a grant from NASA to study how wildfires alter changes in carbon and sediment along California’s coastline.

Engineering Professor Awarded NASA Grant to Study Impacts of Wildfires on California’s Coastline

California is known for its beautiful coastline, where the Pacific Ocean meets sandy beaches and rugged cliffs. While many scientists have studied the land or the ocean independently, less is known...

Professor Marc Beutel waits to collect a wastewater sample as a facilities employee helps to remove the manhole covering on campus.

Campus Wastewater Testing Offers COVID-19 Early Warning System, Establishes Protocols for the Future

COVID-19 upended life as we know it, especially among the science community. While some scientists rushed to develop a vaccine, others sought a better understanding of the virus, hoping to predict...

From Earth to Space and Back Again: Solar Samples Show Surprising Results

When physics graduate student William Delmas made samples of solar energy harvesting perovskite films two years ago, he had no idea that this summer, he’d be analyzing those same samples after...

Engineering Professor Awarded $1 Million NSF Award to Study Protein Folding

Proteins operate like biological machines, regulating nearly every major function and organ in our bodies through a still-mysterious shape-shifting process. Bioengineering graduate group chair...

Rotary District Scholar to Conduct Sanitation Research in Haiti

With COVID-19 protections lifting, many people are eager to travel again. Among them is graduate student Elena Bischak, who is planning multiple trips to Haiti in the coming months to study improving...

A computer-generated image depicts the coronavirus.

UC Merced Professor Studies How Best to Speed COVID-19 Recovery at Home

A UC Merced professor is collaborating with faculty from UCLA and the University of Illinois in a study that aims to find how people might best deal with COVID-19 at home. Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, a...

Professor Erin Hestir (Photo by Veronica Adrover, UC Merced)

Professor Hestir Turns NASA Technology Toward Earth’s Biodiversity

Half a world away from California’s Central Valley is a place with similar climate but an unparalleled diversity of plants, marine animals and ecosystems. From deserts to shrubland to montane...

A lit cigarette is seen in an undated image.

Smokers Light Up More Cigarettes Following California COVID-19 Lockdown Order, Study Finds

The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has been felt around the world. COVID-19's grip has affected people's mental health and sense of what was once normal, prompting them to turn to new...

Professor John Abatzoglou coauthored a piece in The Conversation on the risk of high mountain areas subject to burning.

Western Fires Are Burning Higher in the Mountains at Unprecedented Rates, Professor Finds

The Western U.S. appears headed for another dangerous fire season, and a new study shows that even high mountain areas once considered too wet to burn are at increasing risk as the climate warms...

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