Staff & Faculty News

Astronomers Reveal Hidden Activity in the Early Universe’s Most Massive Galaxies

January 5, 2026

Spectroscopy at the UC's W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii helped the researchers interpret complex data about ultramassive galaxies. Photo courtesy of the W.M. Keck Observatory.

An international team of astronomers has studied ultramassive galaxies - galaxies containing more than 100 billion stars - as they existed when the universe was less than 2 billion years old. The results show that while some of these ultramassive galaxies, or UMGs, had already shut down star...

Professor Findlater and graduate student Aneelman Brar.

Findlater First at UC Merced to Join DOE-funded Energy Frontier Research Center

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas that is contributing to irreversible climate change. Scientists know how to capture CO2, and they know how to transform it into useful molecules and materials...

Donation Drive to Aid Local Flooding Victims

This week, we witnessed major tragedies in communities across our county because of the storms. Planada, a small farming town east of Merced on Highway 140, is one of the hardest-hit areas, with...

Professor Elizabeth Nowadnick with a computer visualization of a ferroelectric crystal structure.

UC Merced-led Research to Focus on Reducing Power Needed for Computing

Computer technology has exploded in recent years and is only going to keep growing, with ever more use of artificial intelligence and connected devices that communicate, or the Internet of Things...

UC Awards $16.4 Million in Grants to Address Climate, Energy and Health

For the first time, UC Merced faculty members from each of the campus’s three schools have been chosen as principal investigators on some of the 21 exciting new projects that are being funded...

Sharee Sok, Korynn Maravilla and Diana Maravilla pose for a photo at UC Merced.

Working at UC Merced Is a Family Affair for Three Generations

"A family that works together, stays together" is not usually how the saying goes. But for one family at UC Merced, it describes their relationship perfectly. Diana Maravilla has worked...

UC Merced-led Research Predicts How Air Cleans Itself

Although climate change is still a very real challenge, the past decades of efforts to reduce the effects of human activities on the atmosphere have been potent enough to have thrown off the models...

Researchers Look at Tree Reproduction and Effects of Climate Change Across North America

Life and Environmental Sciences Professor Emily Moran and collaborators at several other universities are set to conduct a continental-scale analysis of climate change effects on tree reproduction...

A new website offers farmers vital growing information.

New Website Offers Farmers Vital Information at Their Fingertips

When planting crops, farmers confront numerous questions. Among them: Will it get too hot? Is it likely frost will stunt growing? When is the best time to plant? What kind of pests could...

Professor Jeanette Cobian-Iñiguez, front, and her students study heat transfer in fire in her lab.

Experts Recommend a New, More Innovative Approach to Wildfire Research

Fire scientists typically respond to agency opportunities and conduct research in response to past wildfires. But it is time they take more proactive, integrative, predictive approaches toward...

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