Student & Alumni Success

From Dreams to Degrees: Graduates Celebrate with Scholarship Donors

June 12, 2025

UC Merced’s graduating Class of 2025 recently celebrated its achievement at the campus’s spring commencement, joined by family members, close friends and loved ones. For two graduates, Jahaira Morales and Bryan Gutierrez, the ceremony also was an opportunity to meet with a couple of...

Research team members are, from left, Brad Barker, Nabaraj Pokhrel, Md Kamal Hossain and Beth Nowadnick

Grant Funds Research into Computational Materials Science, Collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Materials Science and Engineering Professor Beth Nowadnick has earned a National Science Foundation (NSF) award to study materials that may provide new ways to store or process information....

Student Researchers Working with National Lab on Mercury Remediation

At UC Merced, mercury is a regional challenge that student and faculty researchers have been tackling for several years. Mercury was used to extract gold during the Gold Rush in California, and the...

A student sits in a stairwell and smiles while holding a diploma cover.

Alumnus Shares His UC Merced Experiences to Guide Youth to College

While growing up in the Sacramento area, Donald Carter ('21) said he didn't see many people who looked like him pursuing higher education. As the oldest of four boys in a single-parent...

Engineers Week takes place the third week of February.

Engineers Week Commemorated with In-person Events

Engineering gets its annual turn in the spotlight next week, and UC Merced is planning a number of events to celebrate. Engineers Week, often shortened to EWeek, was founded by the National...

Cognitive and Information Sciences Ph.D. student Ben Nguyen

CIS Ph.D. Student Gains Confidence at NIH Internship

Cognitive and Information Sciences (CIS) Ph.D. student Ben Nguyen spent last summer working as a data analyst at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Nguyen was selected for the competitive...

Alumna Credits UC Merced for Inspiring Her Interest in Cancer Research

After transferring from a Sacramento community college to UC Merced in 2007, Maxine Umeh-Garcia was unsure of her future career. She admits she hadn’t looked at the majors the newest UC offered...

Professor Suzanne Sindi, left, Nitesh Kumar and Professor Roummel Marcia

Alumni Success Celebrated at Inaugural Math Event

The Department of Applied Mathematics, the Applied Mathematics Graduate Program and the student chapter of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) celebrated their many...

Linda Frey, director of the California College Corps program, speaks to attendees of a meeting at UC Merced.

Statewide College Corps Representatives Convene at UC Merced

Nearly 100 participants from higher education facilities across the state gathered at UC Merced in January to exchange ideas around a program that pays students to do volunteer work in their...

Professor Stephanie Woo, left, and graduate student Leesa Strasser are trying to unlock the mechanics of endodermal cells.

Award Supports Study of Fish Embryos to Understand Process that Affects Birth Defects

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has given Professor Stephanie Woo the CAREER award to help her delve into congenital birth defects by looking at the embryonic cells of zebrafish. Woo is...

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