Theoretical chemist Professor Aurora Pribram-Jones has been named a Cottrell Scholar, winning one of only 24 of the prestigious $100,000 grants for her proposal entitled “Reframing Interaction in Quantum Mechanical Ensembles and Across Chemistry Learning Communities.”

Postdoctoral scholar Lihong Zhao was one of 10 researchers named a 2022 Intersect Fellow by the American Association of Immunologists (AAI) — a first for UC Merced.

The AAI Intersect Fellowship Program for Computational Scientists and Immunologists is intended to improve communication and understanding between immunology researchers and computational scientists.

The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has elected founding faculty member Professor Kara McCloskey into its College of Fellows for outstanding contributions to biomaterials for cell and tissue engineering, and meritorious commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

She is the first faculty member from UC Merced to earn this honor.

The Northern California Chapter of the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) Foundation has named UC Merced its newest partner university.

ARCS, a national organization established and operated entirely by women, is committed to the advancement of science in the United States by financially supporting distinguished graduate students in science, technology, engineering, math and medical research disciplines at its partner institutions. The Northern California chapter was founded in 1970; it supports six other universities in the region.

Creating vaccines to train the immune system against parasites is particularly challenging. They are also highly specialized masters of immune evasion.

Some parasites can secrete proteins that bind to immune cell molecules, manipulating them for their survival purposes. Some have complex and fast life cycles so by the time the immune system has learned to recognize one form, it has already shifted to another.

Professor Xuecai Ge, a developmental neurobiologist, has received a CAREER award for research to gain insight into the molecular mechanisms that direct brain formation, and how errors in cell signaling lead to developmental disorders.

Ge is the 31st number researcher from UC Merced to earn a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Mechanical engineering Professor Sachin Goyal has received a CAREER award for his research into how the arrangements of atoms and interatomic bonds affect the  deformability of biological filaments such as those that control gene expression, and whether it’s possible to design them for desired deformation behaviors by simply changing the atomistic conf

A team of eight scientists from around the country is organizing a new project to foster belonging and participation among Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students in the geosciences, supported by the National Science Foundation.

Paleoecology Professor Sora Kim is a member of the team that’s led by Professor Daniel Ibarra with Brown University’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Science, and Professor Kimberly Lau with Penn State’s Department of Geosciences.

UC Merced has earned the distinction of ranking No. 20 among the world's Rising Young Universities, according to the just-released Nature Index 2021 Young Universities — the only U.S. institution to place in the top 25.

Among the leading 150 Young Universities, UC Merced ranks No. 80, and for Leading 50 Young Universities in Life Sciences, it ranks No. 43. These rankings are a jump from 2019, when the campus placed No. 92 among Top 175 Young Universities.

Even the tiniest organisms have a surprisingly huge effect on life in the oceans, eating up the last bits of oxygen in certain areas, preventing larger marine life from surviving there, a new study shows.