Staff & Faculty News

Championing the Transition to Clean Energy

June 11, 2025

Image depicts UC Merced mechanical engineering Professor Ricardo Pinto de Castro talking to students near a small robot.

Mechanical engineering Professor Ricardo Pinto de Castro has turned a penchant for systems-level thinking and a longtime love of cars into a climate-resilient research mission. From electric vehicles (EVs) traversing San Francisco's busiest streets to electric appliances such as...

Wilson Selected as a 2023 American Astronomical Society Fellow

Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Economic Development Gillian Wilson has been named a 2023 American Astronomical Society (AAS) Fellow — the preeminent organization of professional...

UC Merced researcher Reza Ehsani leads a team that will host day camps for students who will take on research and other agricultural projects.

Grant Will Fund Development of New, Technically Advanced Agriculture Workforce

As agriculture, California's most important industry, becomes increasingly technical, the workforce needed to sustain it will have to have different skills than those of a generation...

Cognitive science Professor Teenie Matlock

Matlock Receives International Cognitive Science Prize

Teenie Matlock, Cognitive and Information Sciences professor and the McClatchy Chair in Communications, has been awarded the fourth Jeffrey L. Elman Prize for Scientific Achievement and Community...

Zatz Named 2022 AAAS Fellow

Special Assistant to the Chancellor and sociology Professor Marjorie Zatz has been elected to the 2022 class of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), adding to the list of...

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...

Bear Creek in Merced rose above flood level after storms pummeled the area in January 2023.

What Will it Take to End the Drought in California?

In the wake of record-breaking rain and snow this winter, experts have cautioned that despite the deluge, California remains in a drought. The United States Drought Monitor shows much of...

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...

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