Key Points
UC Merced is one of the first 14 institutions nationwide to earn the new Carnegie Elective Classification for Sustainability, recognizing its comprehensive commitment to sustainability and climate action.
The university is... Read More
Energy & Environment
September 24, 2026
September 16, 2026
Many organizations claim sustainability is baked into their DNA. Nowhere is that truer than at UC Merced, where the approach to sustainability, climate action and ecological conservation is part of everything from the buildings on campus... Read More
September 15, 2026
UC Merced is deepening its investment in the fight against climate change, uniting scientific expertise across campus to help confront the effects of a changing planet.
Leading that effort is the Sierra Nevada Research Institute (SNRI),... Read More
September 3, 2026
Five UC Merced doctoral students have earned prestigious awards from the Northern California Chapter of ARCS Foundation, joining a select group of scholars recognized for outstanding research.
“Congratulations to this year’s ARCS Scholars... Read More
August 18, 2026
UC Merced researchers are launching a project that could change how Central Valley growers harness the sun’s energy, using a family of light-active molecules developed at the university to design smarter agricultural greenhouses.
The... Read More
August 10, 2026
UC Merced is no stranger to solar panels. The campus, built to be sustainable from the beginning, is home to thousands of them, and they provide a good chunk of the electricity that powers the university.
But one very special panel was... Read More
August 4, 2026
Wildfire is reshaping the forests of California's Sierra Nevada and affecting the water those forests supply to downstream users.
A paper published in Hydrology and Earth System Science reports that the effect of wildfire on potential... Read More
June 18, 2026
A leading expert in soil biogeochemistry and environmental engineering, UC Merced Professor Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, brings her research and perspective to a global conversation about the future of our planet.
Berhe, the Ted & Jan Falasco... Read More
June 17, 2026
Key points:
• Researchers found that heat waves are a critical enabler and driver of wildfire-burned areas across the western U.S.
• The findings suggest that heat waves contribute not only to increased flammability, but to longer... Read More
June 1, 2026
Key Points:
Elephants function as a keystone species, producing large amounts of nutrient-rich dung that sustain diverse dung beetle populations and support wider ecosystem health.
A 15-year field experiment showed that removing... Read More