Faculty

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UC Merced Welcomes Future Bobcats for Bobcat Day

UC Merced will host incoming students, their families and friends on Saturday, April 20, for Bobcat Day - the university's annual open house.

Bobcat Day will begin at 9:15 a.m. with a welcome message from Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz at University Plaza. Campus staff, faculty, students and alumni will be available throughout the day to answer questions about clubs and student organizations, summer session, Greek life, cultural groups, athletics, academics, health promotions, the UC Merced Police Department and more.

Graduate Division Hosts 10th Grad Slam Competition

Who will UC Merced’s Grad Slam champion be?

Cheer on the finalists on April 8 and find out.

Graduate students from UC Merced’s three schools will take the stage to compete in the Graduate Division’s 10th Grad Slam finals.

New Center Offers Opportunities to Observe and Learn about Natural Resources

Even though the Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve (MVPGR) is adjacent to campus, it's an area that can be daunting to access.

Last year, more than 2,000 people visited the campus to learn about this unique habitat and the animals and plants that are protected there. Guided visitors included schoolchildren on tours and researchers. Once there, for much of the year, the weather can be windy, rainy or blisteringly hot and there are no facilities where people can take shelter, use the restroom or wash their hands.

Curiosity and Care: Betsy Dumont's Path to UC Merced Provost

In a thick rainforest in Papua New Guinea, they're tracking bats. Researchers glue radio transmitters to the creatures’ little, furry bodies, then wait. And wait. When a bat flits to another position, the humans sprint through the foliage, stop and take a reading.

It’s 1 a.m. The researchers will do this all night, running from spot to spot, triangulating the bats’ movements. Logging data.

Having a blast.

“It’s just fun, right?” Betsy Dumont said, recounting a moment lived on the way to becoming one of the world’s top bat biologists. “It’s hard and it’s fun.”

Ph.D. Student Juggles Academic Demands with Managing a City

Glancing at Mike Futrell’s resume, one might ask, “What hasn’t he done?”

He is a retired United States Navy captain with two submarine tours under his belt and 26 years of service; a former member of the Louisiana House of Representatives; a former senior staff member in the U.S. Senate; and he practiced corporate law for over a decade and is still licensed in Hawaii and Louisiana. Futrell has served as a California city manager for more than a decade.

He is also a graduate student at UC Merced.

Grant Supports UC Merced Effort to Improve College Readiness in Valley

A significant grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will advance UC Merced's efforts to create a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of college readiness among high-school students in the San Joaquin Valley, particularly those from underrepresented and socioeconomically diverse backgrounds.

Fellowship Expands Quantum, AI Training to Fill Industry Demand

UC Merced graduate students Anuvetha Govindarajan and Jocelyn Ornelas-Munoz have each received a $25,000 fellowship from SandboxAQ, which creates solutions at the nexus of artificial intelligence and quantum technology — or AQ — to address some of the world's greatest challenges.

Sukenik Named Sloan Research Fellow for Pioneering Research in Protein Chemistry

Professor Shahar Sukenik has been a faculty member for only 5 1/2 years, but he has already built an impressive resume, becoming a leader in his research field, an innovator and an exceptional communicator.

Those qualities helped him become UC Merced’s first recipient of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s Sloan Research Fellowship.

Active-matter Researcher will Further Modeling, Education with NSF CAREER Award

Department of Physics Professor Kinjal Dasbiswas has received a CAREER award for his work on the theory and modeling of shape-changing active solids.

He is the 38th researcher from UC Merced to earn this award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).