Environmental Research

Research in the Sierra Nevada central to addressing challenges to California's water security and its link to the health of Sierra Nevada ecosystems will continue into 2018.

The National Science Foundation awarded the University of California, Merced, $5 million to continue this work on the water, forests and climate of the Sierra Nevada for another five years, said Professor Roger Bales, who also heads UC Merced’s Sierra Nevada Research Institute.

UC Merced is doubling down on its solar commitment.

The campus is looking at installing rooftop solar systems on up to 11 main campus buildings and the chancellor’s residence, moving the campus closer to meeting its Triple Zero commitment and saving money.

A request for proposals was issued in October, and campus planners and sustainability leaders will look at what vendors come up with before making any decisions.

Graduate student Ryan Lucas is living a mountain-lover’s dream through his research.

As part of engineering Professor Martha Conklin’s meadows-hydrology lab, he gets to spend a lot of time in the Sierra Nevada in Yosemite and Sequoia-Kings Canyon national parks, collecting data on how much water is flowing through the meadows, how it’s moving and by what process.

UC Merced’s first Ph.D. graduate is back on campus. But this time, Ricardo Cisneros isn’t enrolled as a student; he’s a professor instead.

Cisneros, who earned his doctorate in Environmental Systems from the School of Engineering in 2008, was the first environmental health professor hired in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts for its public health program.

Professor Roland Winston’s work has helped take UC Merced and UC Solar global – this time it’s to Singapore.

The small city-nation is experiencing a building boom, and developers have plans to use Winston’s designs for a solar collector to make concrete walls the source of building light.

Adapting technology that has become the standard in the automotive, aerospace and air-conditioning industries, Professor Gerardo Diaz has designed and is testing the next generation of solar-collecting units at UC Merced.

As the Rim Fire continues to burn in and around Yosemite National Park, a former UC Merced student’s work related to the fire burned up the Internet this week.

Paul Doherty, the first Yosemite park ranger to complete a doctoral degree at UC Merced, graduated in the spring and now works as a public safety technology specialist for Esri, a company that provides GIS mapping for a variety of applications.

Just because it’s summertime doesn’t mean research at UC Merced comes to a halt.

Just the opposite.

This summer, professors and students at all levels are conducting a variety of research projects on campus, off campus, in the oceans and forests and around the world.

Up in Yosemite National Park, for example, nine undergraduate students are getting a summer experience to last them a lifetime, conducting research with faculty researchers from UC Merced, scientists from the U.S. Geologic Survey and from the park.