Campus Community

Open Arms, Open Skies: Students Welcomed at Spirited, Soggy Scholars Bridge Crossing

August 26, 2025

Spirits were high and futures bright while all else was soaked in a summer storm that made Tuesday morning’s Scholars Bridge Crossing, UC Merced’s traditional greeting to new students, a welcome unlike any before. Call them Thunder ‘Cats. The ceremony embraced about 2,000...

Alumnus Named Women's Volleyball Coach

Surabordin “Ai” Prachumsri has been hired to take the helm as UC Merced’s second head coach in women's volleyball and the first alumnus to become a head coach for the campus. Prachumsri brings a...

Alumnus Finds His Purpose in Education

Editor's note: The following story appeared in the spring issue of UC Merced Magazine. When Abraham Olivares moved to Merced at age 20, a career in education was the furthest thing from his mind....

Professor’s Mercurial Studies Involve Tree Bark, Fish and Water

From the forests of Tuscany, Italy, to the shores of a San Diego reservoir, Professor Marc Beutel is hunting mercury. Beutel, one of the newest professors in the UC Merced School of Engineering, has...

MACES Focuses on Tiny Particles, Broad Horizons

Researchers at UC Merced are making a big deal out of a piece of equipment that lets them look at really tiny things. And they should — the new Zeiss Gemini SEM 500 scanning electron microscope is...

Students Show Climate Impacts, Pitch Solutions in UC-wide Contest

Several students, faculty members and the provost represented UC Merced at the University of California’s recent Carbon Slam event, placing in the presentation competitions and increasing the campus’...

Students Present the Face of Yosemite to the First Family

For many UC Merced students, visiting Yosemite is a relaxing way to spend a weekend. But for several UC Merced students, the past weekend was extremely hectic and a little nerve-wracking — but full...

Studying the ’Saurs: New Class is a ‘Gateway to Science’

One of the campus’s newest professors is teaching one of its newest classes on one of the world’s oldest subjects: dinosaurs. But there’s much more to Professor Justin Yeakel’s Natural History of...

Bioengineering Student Wins Strauss Scholarship to Help Visually Impaired

Harkanwalpreet Sodhi, a third-year bioengineering student, won a $10,000 Donald A. Strauss Foundation scholarship to help visually impaired people in Merced. The scholarship will help Sodhi start a...

Campus Police Officers Hit the Road for Special Olympics

The Merced County portion of the 2016 Law Enforcement Torch Run made its way to the UC Merced campus yesterday. This is the fifth year that UC Merced police officers and staff members have run in the...