Solar

From Soil to Climate Solutions: Berhe Leads Sierra Nevada Research Institute into its Next Chapter

September 11, 2025

When Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe arrived at UC Merced in 2009, she and her husband, Professor Teamrat Ghezzehei, were leaving major research institutions to join a brand-new campus in California’s Central Valley. It was a leap of faith — one made easier by the Sierra Nevada Research...

Engineering a Garden Takes a Campus Community

As everyone knows, space is limited on the UC Merced campus. But with a little money and a lot of persistence, Engineers for a Sustainable World has found a way to carve out a little room for a...

New Energy Manager’s Big Plans Require Small Steps

As UC Merced’s new energy manager, it’s Varick Erickson’s job to watch every kilowatt hour used on campus and identify ways to save them. “It’s a lot like rummaging around in the couch and looking...

UC Merced Professor’s Lighting Device Earning Campus Its Fourth U.S. Patent

Professor Roland Winston knows a jellyfish that can help people see more clearly. But it’s not the kind found in the ocean. It’s one that’s about to earn Winston and UC Merced a U.S. patent, and is...

Korean Students Get UC Solar Experience

They traveled nearly 20 hours by plane and bus across 5,700 miles to spend three weeks in the Central Valley sun. Fifteen engineering students from Dankook University in Yongin, Gyeonggi, South Korea...

'Dynamic Duo' Wins Systemwide Award for Sustainability Efforts

Making an entire campus sustainable takes a lot of planning, education and work. But those efforts are what earned two of UC Merced’s sustainability leaders systemwide recognition. Former Director of...

Park Leaders Collaborate, Learn at UC Merced Institute

At a time when Californians are dismayed about closures of state parks, and protected lands around the globe are under increasing stress from reduced government resources, an innovative institute is...

Physics Graduate Student Explores Nanoworld

When Andrea Rodarte began studying physics, she first wanted to look to the stars for answers. Instead, she’s finding them in nanoparticles. “The people I know who went into astrophysics only get to...

Professor Awarded Collaborative Grant in Solar Energy Conversion

UC Merced applied math Professor Boaz Ilan is a major contributor to a national research team exploring a novel way to use fractal geometry to improve the production of electricity in solar panels...

Researchers' Refinement Increases Solar Concentrator Efficiency

A team of researchers at the University of California, Merced, has redesigned luminescent solar concentrators to be more efficient at sending sunlight to solar cells. The advancement could be an...