Staff & Faculty News

For the First Time, All Avian Evolutionary Relationships Revealed Through Collaboration

April 29, 2025

Professor Emily Jane McTavish and colleagues at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology have mapped the evolution of every known bird species. They created a complete evolutionary tree of bird species by combining data on 9,239 species published in nearly 300 studies between 1990 and 2024 and...

Public Conference Presents COVID-19 From Different Angles

Everyone will have opportunities to learn about collaborative research at the intersections of COVID-19 and topics related to the environment, health and equity through a series of online conference...

Professor Tracey Osborne Taking on Complex, Grand Challenges in Climate and Social Justice

The world is a complex place, and humanity faces major challenges. Climate change mitigation might be the most difficult, in large part because of the interdependency of living things and their...

Founding UC Merced Faculty Member Appointed to the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery

The Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery has announced that UC Merced Art History Professor ShiPu Wang has joined the museum’s Board of Commissioners for a four-year term. His appointment...

SNRI Executive Named Director of State Parks

Armando Quintero’s passion for water, conservation, nature and responsible stewardship has carried him through his life, from his days as a National Park ranger, artist, teacher and leader of...

Drones captured photogrammatic images of Lake Berryessa for CalTrans.

UC Drone Center Takes on Training and Safety with State Transportation Agency

There is a growing acceptance and adoption of drones — unmanned aircraft systems — by local and state agencies across the U.S. Advocates say there’s good reason: Drones can be a...

Matos Selected for National Hispanic Leadership Program

UC Merced Associate Chancellor and Chief Diversity Officer Dania Matos has been selected as a fellow in La Academia de Liderazgo (Leadership Academy) by the Hispanic Association of Colleges and...

Equipment in the Costa Rican rainforest measures the soil emissions.

Precipitation and Drainage Fuel Large CO2 ‘Burps’ from Rainforest Soils, Study Finds

It is said that rainforests are the Earth’s lungs, capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, building it into lush vegetation and releasing oxygen and water back into the air. But every...

Ecosystem Engineers Play Crucial Role in Stabilizing Their Environments, Study Shows

When people think of engineering in nature, they tend to think of species such as beavers — the tree-felling, dam-building rodents whose machinations can shape the landscape by creating lakes...

World’s Oldest Trees Shape the Diversity of Life in Their Soils, Study Shows

There’s a whole world of activity beneath your feet. Soil holds a large proportion of Earth's biodiversity, and is the place where organisms interact with each other and with plants,...

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