Energy & Environment

UC Merced Aerial Picture
UC Merced's Smart Farm Abuzz with Activity
June 25, 2025
At UC Merced's biggest lab, students work from before sunrise to well after dusk. They are operating the university's Experimental Smart Farm, 40 acres of dirt and plants, research and experiments. They study everything from pollinators to... Read More
From Strawberries to Smart Farm: Alum Adamaris Alvarez Grows Passion into a Career Path
June 18, 2025
Growing up in Watsonville, a vibrant agricultural community on California's Central Coast, Adamaris Alvarez always knew she wanted to work in agriculture. She worked on her family's berry ranch, Alvarez Farms, where she grew a deep... Read More
Hurricanes Create Powerful Changes Deep in the Ocean, Study Reveals
June 6, 2025
With careful planning and a little luck, researchers found a surprising upside to hurricanes after a Category 4 storm disrupted their expedition off the coast of Mexico. The team was able to sample the ocean right after the storm passed... Read More
Students Awarded Prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship
June 4, 2025
Two UC Merced graduate students and an alum from the School of Natural Sciences were recently awarded fellowships from the highly competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. This year, NSF awarded 1,000... Read More
Study Indicates Human-caused Dust Events are Linked to Fallow Farmland
June 2, 2025
An average of more than 1 million acres of idled farmland a year is a significant contributor to a growing dust problem in California that has implications for millions of residents’ health and the state’s climate. A new study published in... Read More
UC Merced Brings Climate Justice Course to Title I High School Students Across the Nation
May 28, 2025
Recently, more than 150 students at 10 high schools in Los Angeles, New York City and Washington, D.C. completed Climate Justice, a UC Merced course , through a unique partnership between the University of California and the National... Read More
Dust is a Danger to Central Valley Health and Will Likely Get Worse, Researchers Find
May 12, 2025
People don't think about dust much until it's time to clean the house, but a new report by UC researchers could raise awareness of the growing threat of dust and dust storms. Dust affects everything from cardiovascular and brain health to... Read More
How Did the COVID-19 Pandemic Fuel Record-Breaking Wildfires in 2020? New Study Explains
May 5, 2025
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted many facets of life, including health care, schools and the work environment. A new study by UC Merced researchers shows evidence that the pandemic also fueled an elevated number of wildfires in the... Read More
Researchers Look Ahead to Fire Season 2025
April 22, 2025
Pictures accompanying Professor John Abatzoglou's presentation on the 2025 fire season were blurry. That was intentional, he said, because so much about wildfire is unpredictable. "There's a lot that we know, and a lot we don't know," he... Read More
Graduate Student Earns Fellowship to Study Fusion at Livermore Lab
April 16, 2025
UC Merced physics graduate student Sameen Yunus has been awarded a prestigious fellowship allowing her to spend the next three years working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, conducting experiments and simulations that could lead... Read More