Research Excellence

People Don’t Worry About Losing Jobs to AI, Even When Told It Could Happen Soon

November 18, 2025

Illustration of worker threatened by robot

As debates rage about artificial intelligence's impact on jobs, new research suggests that even warnings that AI could disrupt workers' employment soon do little to shake their confidence. In a survey-based study, political scientists Anil Menon of UC Merced and Baobao Zhang of...

Applied Math Conference Highlights Student Research

The UC Merced student chapter of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) hosted the second annual Central Valley Regional SIAM Student Chapter Conference on April 7. In only...

Grad Students Pitch Their Research in GradSlam! Contest

After a fierce round of competition during the GradSlam! finals on April 13, environmental systems student Byran Fuhrmann emerged as UC Merced’s new GradSlam! campus champion. For winning the...

Study Identifies Effects of EU Expansion on Labor, Research

Rather than a brain-drain, the 13-country European Union (EU) expansion initiated more than a decade ago triggered a brain-reconfiguration — the rising circulation of knowledge through the increased...

Research Shows Global Photosynthesis on the Rise

Plant photosynthesis was stable for hundreds of years before the industrial revolution, but grew rapidly in the 20th century, according to new research published today in Nature. “Virtually all life...

Ancient Biological Clockwork Revealed Using ‘Secret Sauce’

In finding a way to see assemblies of the proteins that direct cyanobacterial circadian rhythms, or biological clocks, UC Merced biochemistry Professor Andy LiWang and his colleagues have done what...

Campus Named to Carnegie List of Research Universities

The University of California, Merced, has been designated a “doctoral-granting university with higher research activity” — or R2, the second-highest classification for American research universities...

Researchers Find Key to Harmful Pathogen’s Transformation

A team of scientists led by UC Merced Professor Aaron D. Hernday has made a major advancement in understanding how the most common fungal pathogen in humans can alter its cellular phenotype and ...

Researcher’s Work Shows History Doesn’t Indicate the Future of Climate Change

Shakespeare might have been right when he wrote “what’s past is prologue,” but not when it comes to modeling climate change. A new study shows that rising air temperatures could have a crippling...

Professor Named ‘Rising Star’ in Quantitative Psychology

UC Merced Psychology Professor Sarah Depaoli has been recognized as a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science (APS), a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of...

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