UC Merced will celebrate the Class of 2026 with three inspiring alumni returning to campus as keynote speakers for commencement ceremonies May 15-17.

Emily Reed, ’07, ’13, a tenured biology professor at Merced College, will share her story with more than 100 master’s and doctoral degree candidates and their guests at the Graduate Division ceremony on May 15.

Left ventricular devices, or LVADs, are life saving for patients with advanced heart failure, a condition that affects more than 6 million Americans each year.

A UC Merced researcher has earned an American Heart Association Career Development Award to fund his work on improving how these mechanical pumps interact with the heart and body. It's the first time a faculty member from UC Merced has received one of these awards.

It's time to think bigger about mitigating climate change.

Measures such as recycling, turning off lights and reducing energy use are great, but making a real impact is going to take systemic change, said Leah Stokes, a political scientist, energy expert and climate communicator from UC Santa Barbara.

What started as a premise in a UC Merced lab culminated with a commemoration of Project Nexus, California's first solar canal project.

On Wednesday, state leaders gathered at the Project Nexus sites in Hickman and Keyes to celebrate the completion of the construction pilot, which demonstrates how covering operational irrigation canals with solar panels can help save water, generate clean energy, and conserve natural lands.

As crops go, agave holds a lot of promise for the northern San Joaquin Valley. The succulents thrive in hot sun, don't require much water and can be grown in the region's sandy soils. And though agave, mainly grown in Mexico, is best known as the source of tequila and mezcal, it has other uses that range from nutritional supplements to fabrics.

It's no secret that artificial intelligence uses a lot of electricity.

A standard ChatGPT query consumes approximately 0.34 watt-hours - roughly 10 times more than a Google search. According to the Pew Research Center, U.S. data centers consumed 183 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2024 - more than 4% of the country's total electricity consumption - roughly equivalent to the annual electricity demand of the entire nation of Pakistan.

UC Merced saw broad gains in the U.S. News and World Report 2026 Best Graduate Schools rankings with graduate programs rising in national standing, reflecting the campus’s growing academic and research profile.

Most weekdays, civil engineering major Jacqueline Garcia travels 45 minutes each way from her hometown of Hughson to attend classes at UC Merced.

“The perk is being able to pursue my undergraduate degree while still having a tie to home. It's been great having the campus here in the Valley,” she said.

While she has enjoyed living at home while attending a UC campus, the third-year undergraduate student said commuting does pose some challenges. Early on, she often went home right after class, making it harder to join evening activities.

Professors Asmeret Asefaw Berhe and Ming-Hsuan Yang have been named 2025 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.

They are among the nearly 500 scientists, engineers and innovators who have been recognized this year for their distinguished scientific and social achievements.