Staff & Faculty News

COSMOS Expands to UC Merced, Opening Doors for California’s Brightest Young Scientists

December 11, 2025

High school students will have a wider array of research opportunities through COSMOS starting next summer.

Starting next summer, UC Merced will join an elite group of University of California campuses hosting COSMOS — the California State Summer School for Math and Science — giving some of the state’s most talented high school students a new destination for exploring advanced STEM...

Political Science Professor Jessica Trounstine is the first faculty member to receive the UC Merced Foundation Board of Trustees Presidential Chair.

Political Scientist Trounstine Appointed Inaugural Endowed Presidential Chair

Political science Professor Jessica Trounstine has been awarded the inaugural UC Merced Foundation Board of Trustees Presidential Chair. This chair was created to recognize the excellent...

The Faculty and Staff Open Enrollment Benefits & Wellness Fair will be held on Wednesday, Nov. 6 at the Yablokoff-Wallace Dining Center.

Open Enrollment Period Offers New Options for Staff, Faculty

A new supplemental health insurance option and a realignment of prescription medications covered under PPOs are among the featured changes in benefits for UC Merced staff and faculty members as the...

Professor Kevin Dawson receives the Harriet Tubman Prize for his book "Undercurrents of Power: Aquatic Culture in the African Diaspora" during an Oct. 10, 2019, ceremony at the Lapidus Center in New York.

Dawson Wins Harriet Tubman Prize for Book on Aquatic Culture of African Diaspora

As a child, Kevin Dawson traveled from California to visit his grandmother in Harlem, where he recalls playing in Jackie Robinson Park. Dawson, an avid swimmer and surfer, would peer through a fence...

Berhe Named to Endowed Chair in Recognition of Her Work in Soil Sciences

Soil biogeochemistry Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe has been named the Ted and Jan Falasco Chair in Earth Sciences and Geology. “The Falasco family is engaged in construction and...

Aldenderfer Discusses Humans’ Deep History at International Mountain Conference

Archaeology Professor Mark Aldenderfer ventured to the Austrian Alps recently to deliver a keynote address at the International Mountain Conference in Innsbruck. Aldenderfer’s...

Campus Honors Staff Excellence

When it comes to campus icons, Guillermo Rivas is at the top of the list. The arches of the Beginnings sculpture might grace campus photos and brochures, but Rivas graces everyone he meets with his...

Biodiversity Study Indicates Large and Small Organisms React Similarly to Environment

Bacteria and starfish have more in common than people might think. A new study published today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences shows that both single-celled (...

Valley Fever the Focus of Public Event

UC Merced is offering the opportunity for Valley residents to learn what clinicians and researchers know about Valley fever, an airborne fungal infection that can have serious, even fatal,...

Nobile Awarded Kamangar Family Endowed Chair

Professor Clarissa Nobile has been named the newest Kamangar Family Endowed Chair in Biological Sciences and will be honored at a private ceremony with the donors this fall. “I am so...

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