Research

Astronomers Reveal Hidden Activity in the Early Universe’s Most Massive Galaxies

January 5, 2026

Spectroscopy at the UC's W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii helped the researchers interpret complex data about ultramassive galaxies. Photo courtesy of the W.M. Keck Observatory.

An international team of astronomers has studied ultramassive galaxies - galaxies containing more than 100 billion stars - as they existed when the universe was less than 2 billion years old. The results show that while some of these ultramassive galaxies, or UMGs, had already shut down star...

Study: Fishing Industry a Bigger Polluter than Previously Known

Many studies have shown that raising cattle and pigs for food is hard on the environment, and fish has long been considered a better alternative. But the work of UC Merced graduate student Brandi...

New Study Shows Early Human Impacts on Biodiversity

Even without all the industrial and technological growth that has accelerated climate change, humans can — and do — dramatically impact ecosystems. A new paper in Nature Communications, co-authored...

GradSLAM! Finalists Hope to Become Campus Champion

Ten UC Merced graduate students are going to the campuswide finals of the GradSLAM! competition in the hopes of becoming campus champion and competing with grad students from across the UC system....

Young Professor Honored with Prestigious NSF Award

In his first faculty position, in his first year at UC Merced, Professor Dong Li has won his first grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and it’s a prestigious Faculty Early Career...

Researchers Identify Drug That Could Treat Melanoma

Less than a year after mapping the genetic landscape of melanoma, a researcher from the University of California, Merced, has identified a drug that could be effective in battling the deadly skin ...

Growing Research Week Offers Events and Activities for All

The annual Research Week tabling event has more than doubled in size from last year, and that’s just one of the new and growing events featured in UC Merced’s weeklong celebration of research. More...

Professor Elected to Leadership Role With American Physical Society

Professor Anne Myers Kelley, with the School of Natural Sciences, has been elected vice-chair of the Division of Laser Science (DLS) of the American Physical Society (APS), the world's largest...

Two Professors Named Campus’s First MacArthur Chairs

Two UC Merced faculty members with distinguished, international research careers recently became the campus’s first John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Chairs. Professor Mark Aldenderfer, who served...

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...