News

UC Merced Receives $1 Million Award to Support Postdoctoral Fellows

March 11, 2026
UC Merced has received a $1 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to strengthen postdoctoral fellowships and expand research in the natural sciences. Awarded through the foundation’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Commitment, this distinction places UC Merced among just 30 leading...

Ready, Set, Slam: 10 UC Merced Scholars Battle for Champion Title

March 9, 2026
Ten UC Merced graduate researchers are gearing up to deliver the most intense three minutes of their academic careers. Each spring, master’s and Ph.D. students across the campus’s three schools are invited to participate in Grad Slam — a fast‑paced competition that challenges scholars to distill...

Creative, Problem-Solving Projects Win at I2G

January 28, 2026
A semi-automated washing system for bins at a tomato-processing facility and a mobile app for hikers earned big wins at the Fall 2025 I2G, or Innovate to Grow, event at UC Merced. I2G is a unique "experiential learning" program that engages external partner organizations with teams of students who...

UC Merced Alum, Now a Robotics Expert for Amazon, Advises Students to Get Their Hands Dirty

January 6, 2026
Kevin Arrieta got into robotics to avoid getting into trouble. Arrieta said he joined the robotics club at Dominguez High School in Compton high school after Gloria Esiobu, the teacher who ran it, gave him an ultimatum. "I had gotten in with the wrong crowd," he said. "I had a physics teacher who...

Challenges, Opportunities Presented at Small Farm Tech Expo

December 10, 2025
The Small Farm Tech Expo brought researchers, farmers, university students and even a group from a Modesto elementary school to UC Merced to talk about agriculture technology and how it can best help those who grow the world's food. Sponsored by the Community Alliance with Family Farmers, also...

Ag Tech For Small Farms Highlighted at UC Merced Expo

November 26, 2025
An expo at UC Merced next week will bring together farmers, ranchers, researchers and community organizers to highlight what's possible when agriculture technology is designed for small farms. The Small Farm Tech Expo, scheduled for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 2, will include hands-on...

Muhammad Hassaan Ahmed receives the Will Shadish Graduate Student Fellowship

October 7, 2025
Muhammad Hassaan Ahmed, a Ph.D. student in Mechanical Engineering, has been awarded the prestigious Will Shadish Graduate Student Fellowship, a selective fellowship awarded annually to a UC Merced graduate student who has outstanding achievements in research and teaching.  Hassaan...

Simple Chemical Treatment Makes Next-Gen Electronics More Reliable

August 19, 2025
A team of international researchers has discovered that a simple chemical treatment can enhance the strength and reliability of one of the world’s thinnest materials for use in future electronics. The study, published in Nature Communications, demonstrates that treating monolayer molybdenum...

Baykara Lab and Collaborators Enhance Semiconducting 2D Material for Next-Generation Electronics

August 17, 2025
An atomic-resolution image of MoS2 acquired by Baykara Lab researchers, where bright dots represent individual sulfur atoms and a missing sulfur atom is highlighted by the dashed circle.   Thanks to their extremely small dimensions and attractive electronic properties, two-...

Incoming Bobcats ‘Grew Up’ with UC Merced

July 31, 2025
This is part of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2025 semester. One could say UC Merced has always been part of incoming Bobcats Ella and Satchel Ortez’s lives. The twins’ father worked for the 10th UC campus when it opened, and they lived with the campus as their...

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