Outreach

The UC Merced Foundation has named Stephanie Gallo, chief marketing officer at GALLO, to its Board of Trustees. A respected community leader and seasoned executive, Gallo brings extensive experience and a strong commitment to advancing educational initiatives and regional innovation.

As CMO of GALLO — the world’s largest family-owned winery, co-founded by her grandfather, Ernest, and great uncle, Julio — Gallo oversees the global management and strategic direction of the company’s brand portfolio.

Community leader and Creekside Company co-owner Jay Mahil has been named to the UC Merced Foundation Board of Trustees.

A fourth-generation farmer and the first in his family born in the United States, Mahil grew up in Lodi and is a longtime Fresno resident. After graduating from Lodi High School and Fresno State, he joined his family’s farming business, playing a key role in its modernization and expansion across the region.

UC Merced invites the public to an evening of cosmic discovery on Thursday, Oct. 23, featuring a free lecture by Bruce Macintosh, director of the University of California Observatories, followed by telescope viewing with the campus Astronomy Club.

Macintosh, a leading expert in the search for planets, will present “Beyond the Solar System: The Search for Distant Worlds and Alien Earths.” His talk will explore the groundbreaking technology behind the first images of other solar systems and the quest to find Earth-like planets orbiting distant stars.

UC Merced, in conjunction with longtime campus partner the Campos Foundation, launched the pilot Campos ENgage Summer Bridge Academy, a weeklong summer program aimed at supporting underrepresented minority and female students interested in STEM.

For more than 1,300 Central Valley students, this summer break wasn’t all about fun — it included strengthening their math and science skills to prepare them for the new school year and beyond.

UC Merced’s Center for Educational Partnerships offered a wealth of summer programming led by its three offices: K-20 Regional Alliances, State College Preparatory Programs and K-14 Federal Programs.

Department of Molecular and Cell Biology Professor Chris Amemiya, former interim director of the Health Sciences Research Institute, has been honored by the Pan American Society for Evolutionary Developmental Biology (PASEDB) with the Service Award.

More than 100 million land mines remain buried around the world, posing a threat in approximately 70 countries and territories, and killing or injuring about 5,000 people, most of them civilians, every year. 

As the world’s geopolitical landscape shifts, nine scientists studying different aspects of warfare ecology from seven countries — Poland, Ukraine, Norway, Spain, the United States, Finland and Croatia — are warning against the growing deployment of land mines as countries bordering Russia withdraw from global conventions restricting their use.

Vice Chancellor for Research, Innovation and Economic Development Gillian Wilson has been named a 2024 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.

Being elected an AAAS Fellow is one of the most prestigious honors awarded by the association. Wilson is one of only eight astronomers honored this year.

For five years, UC Merced has offered veterans a unique opportunity to consider, dream of and plan for their lives beyond the military.

A free workshop held in Yosemite National Park, the Yosemite Veterans Education and Leadership Seminar presents veterans with an array of networking, career and educational opportunities, resources, assistance in accessing their military benefits and programs, and, best of all, a community of people who can be there for them long after the workshop is over.

Recognizing food as both sustenance and a cultural experience that can evoke memories, cross boundaries and bring people together, seasoned chef and media personality Ed Porter recently brought his latest short film to UC Merced for an exclusive screening.

“The Food that Fuels” is a documentary that highlights the San Joaquin Valley and its role as a global supplier of fresh produce. It features a section on UC Merced’s Experimental Smart Farm and regional farms participating in Dining Services’ award-winning BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) Produce Buying Program.