Note: This story originally appeared in the Fall 2014 issue of UC Merced Magazine and has been updated in the wake of the Nov. 4 elections. Read the whole issue online.
Professor Masashi Kitazawa wants to figure out if any environmental factors increase the risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease – specifically, whether elevated levels of copper in drinking water play a role.
A new $2.6 million, five-year grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences will fund his research, making what was a side project into a full-blown exploration.
How patients perceive and talk about their illnesses can have an impact on how they recover and heal, according to a growing area of health research being furthered by UC Merced health psychology Professor Jitske Tiemensma.
"It should be a team effort to treat a patient. Medical doctors often have no idea about the psychological consequences of disease," she said. "It's really important for them to have close ties to health psychologists."
UC Merced has hired 34 faculty members for the 2014-15 academic year, giving the campus 212 tenure-track professors who expand the depth and breadth of research expertise.
Excluding student employees, the campus now has about 1,300 total staff and faculty members, which also includes 149 lecturers.
Professor Carolin Frank will collect $1.6 million over the next four years to continue researching the nitrogen-fixing bacteria that live in pine needles and to work with the Sierra Foothill Charter School, which she helped found.
When people get near California’s giant sequoias, they usually look up.
Most UC Merced students have the desire to help shape the university — whether it’s the culture or the curriculum. Rocco Bowman was no different.