Alyssa Johansen

"These works are a tribute to nature, to culture, and to time itself." 

That's how UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz described "Four Seasons of Yosemite" during a reception at the Leo and Dottie Kolligian Library, where campus leaders and community members, donors and the artist himself gathered to celebrate the university's milestone acquisition of the four monumental stained-glass murals. 

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.

For the second year, UC Merced has partnered with the Campos Foundation to host the Campos ENgage Engineering Summer Bridge Academy, a weeklong summer program aimed at supporting underrepresented minority and female students interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). 

This is part of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2026 semester.

Driven by a passion for animal care, incoming biological sciences major student Esperanza Garcia is already well on her way toward a future in veterinary medicine.

This is part of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2026 semester.

Incoming UC Merced student Shrihan Lakinana is bringing a growth mindset, a passion for engineering and a deep appreciation for community to the Bobcat experience.

Editor's note: This story is republished from the Spring/Summer 2026 issue of UC Merced Magazine.

David Zwart hadn't even finished introducing himself as the keynote speaker for "The Dutch -American Story in the San Joaquin Valley" at the UC Merced event on July 14 before he'd found a connection in the audience. 

"Any connections?" the historian and associate professor at Grand Valley State University asked, rattling off the years he'd spent teaching in nearby Visalia in the late 1990s. An audience member called out a name he recognized. It's a parlor game Zwart calls "Dutch Bingo," a version of six degrees of separation that, among Dutch Americans, usually takes one or two.