School of Natural Sciences

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...

Students Prepared for Success at UC Merced

http://youtu.be/eT4dckdP-Nc At UC Merced, preparing students for success goes well beyond the classroom. The ability to conduct hands-on research is extended to students from the moment they step...

Professor Creates Powerful HIV Inhibitor

In a significant step toward reducing the threat of HIV, UC Merced Professor Patricia LiWang has designed what may be the most effective chemical inhibitor against infection of the virus. “We need a...

Impact: Undergrads Return from Unforgettable Research Trip

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8wzG0QWw80A group of students working with Professor Benoit Dayrat learned first-hand this summer about the field research opportunities available to undergraduates at...

Professor Seeks to Understand Chemical Reactions

Professor Jason Hein was lured to UC Merced because of the opportunity to pursue his research, even if it crosses into other branches of chemistry, physics, biology and engineering. “Being a jack of...

Professor Discovers Mechanism Behind Bacteria’s Biological Clock

A discovery by a professor at the University of California, Merced, is providing a deeper understanding of the factors that control biological clocks. Biochemistry Professor Andy LiWang and his...

Study Builds on Plausible Scenario for Origin of Life on Earth

A relatively simple combination of naturally occurring sugars and amino acids offers a plausible route to the building blocks of life, according to a paper published in Nature Chemistry co-authored...

Summer a Fertile Time for Scientific Research

It's not just faculty and students in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Artswho are conducting groundbreaking research this summer. Those in Engineering and Natural Sciences will be busy...

Campus Names New Dean of Natural Sciences

Juan C. Meza, named one of Hispanic Business magazine’s ‘Top 100 Influentials of 2009,’ is head of high-performance computing research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory MERCED — The...

Sustainability Research Opportunities Abound for 2010 Grad

Andrea Mercado has a knack for finding opportunity. She left her hometown of Lake Arrowhead in Southern California for college in Seattle, but a year later, her horizons opened up in a different ...