Research

Leadership in STEM: Abigail Gyamfi Honored with 2025 ACS Leader Scholars Award

February 4, 2026

Chemistry and Biochemistry (CBC) Ph.D. candidate Abigail Gyamfi has earned the 2025 American Chemical Society Leader Scholars Award. The ACS Leader Scholars program recognizes outstanding undergraduate students, graduate students and early-career scientists. “I am profoundly grateful to...

Studying the ’Saurs: New Class is a ‘Gateway to Science’

One of the campus’s newest professors is teaching one of its newest classes on one of the world’s oldest subjects: dinosaurs. But there’s much more to Professor Justin Yeakel’s Natural History of...

Ancient DNA Sheds Light on Origins of Himalayan Populations

In a collaborative study by the University of California, Merced, the University of Oklahoma, the University of Chicago and Uppsala University in Sweden, researchers conduct the first ancient DNA...

Dedicated Student Breaks Ground With Ph.D., Autism Research

When Nikko Da Paz decided to go to graduate school, she didn’t limit herself to one degree — or even one campus. The mother of two young children with autism enrolled at UC Merced in 2011, and in May...

Scientists Unveiling the Complexity of Mysterious Protein Folding

Imagine trying to reverse engineer a car when all you have is a finished product or a box full of parts — no instructions. That’s what scientists have been trying to do with proteins, the mysterious...

Brainstorm: Professors Take Holistic Approach to Study Thinking, Learning and Neuroscience

The following article is the main story in a six-piece package that appeared in the spring issue of UC Merced Magazine focusing on the research performed at UC Merced that relates to the brain. You...

Wildfire Increasing in the West Because of Climate Change, Research Shows

The number, size and duration of large mountain forest fires in the Western United States has increased dramatically in the past 40 years, according to research from UC Merced Professor LeRoy...

Campus Getting Greener with New Research Growing Spaces

Everyone knows UC Merced is growing, but pretty soon, the campus will be growing lots of plant specimens for research, too. The School of Natural Sciences is buying a pair of greenhouses that will be...

Professor Recounts Lost History of Migrant Workers in New Book

When UC Merced Professor Mario Sifuentez was a graduate student, he didn’t have to look far to find a subject to research — members of his family had been migrant workers in Oregon for many years,...

Study Links Cancer Cell Growth to Nervous System

Cancer cells divide with more frequency and are more resilient when they are closer to the brain, indicating a potential link between cell growth and the nervous system, according to new research...