Research

UC Merced Breakthrough Could Transform How California Monitors Toxic Algae

July 10, 2025

Photo depicts Brittany Barreto Martinez pouring liquid into a test tube in a lab.

San Luis Reservoir in Merced County - one of California's largest artificial lakes - not only irrigates Central Valley farmland and supplies drinking water across Silicon Valley and the South Bay, but also draws swimmers, boaters and anglers year-round. Yet for months at a time, forest-green...

Continued Smoking Can Spread Cancer, Research Shows

Cigarette smoke cannot only cause cancer, but it’s also responsible for the spread of it, according to research by UC Merced biochemistry Professor Henry Jay Forman. Forman discovered tobacco smoke...

Researcher Aims to Use Social Multimedia for Enhanced Mapping

Mapping what is where on the earth’s surface is currently done primarily through overhead aerial and satellite images. This is useful in many ways but is limited in terms of portraying things like...

Impact: Ecologist Simulates Climate Change with Infrared Heaters

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06VNtISfSycClimate change is leading to higher temperatures around the world, forcing plants, trees and animals to adapt to new conditions or relocate, often to higher...

Graduate Student’s Research Examines Cognitive Benefits of Bilingualism

Born in Nebraska to a Persian mother and a father whose military duty took the family to Europe for much of her childhood, Kandice Soraya Grote grew up speaking English, German and Farsi. Upon...

Graduate Student Focuses Research on Infectious Disease

Mufadhal Al-Kuhlani came to UC Merced to help reduce the threat of harmful diseases through innovative research. Al-Kuhlani is studying immunology within the Quantitative and Systems Biology graduate...

National Geographic Film Chronicles Highland Research

Watch Full Episode on PBS. See more from Cave People of the Himalaya. Mark Aldenderfer, dean of UC Merced’s School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts, is featured in a National Geographic...

Engineering Professor Looks to Make an Impact

Professor Ashlie Martini was looking for the chance to make a difference when she took a post at UC Merced. Martini, now a professor in the UC Merced School of Engineering, was most recently a...

UC Research Resource Center to Serve San Joaquin Valley

An innovative community-university partnership to empower San Joaquin Valley residents to analyze and communicate their most pressing challenges launches in Fresno this month. The Participatory...

Graduate Student Finds New Career in Military Research

As a chemistry teacher at Golden Valley High School in 2004, Scott Seronello frequently told his students to keep working at their education and never give up their dreams. Then his students asked...