Student & Alumni Success

UC Merced will host its second virtual ceremony for the Fall 2020 Commencement on Dec. 19, with a host of changes meant to confer upon students the distinct importance of the achievement.

5:15 a.m.: Wake up. My phone is my alarm, placed under my bed so I must get up to turn it off. Make my bed. Stretch.

Ish Verduzco has a weekday routine. It rarely varies more than 20 to 30 minutes a day.

5:20 a.m.: Listen to an audiobook while I brush my teeth and prep for my morning workout.

About 70 percent of people with COVID-19 suddenly lose their sense of smell, although fewer of them seem to realize it, according to a new “living analysis” by a research team that includes a UC Merced graduate student.

Students and faculty worked with a record number of schoolchildren from Merced, the Bay Area and southern California all the way to Washington, D.C., enriching their learning and increasing their interest in science, technology, engineering and math.

As scientists build smaller and smaller machines, they need to understand the invisible forces that make those machines work.

Thanks to research and the initiative of then-UC Merced graduate student Jake Pate, some of those forces can now be measured and manipulated.

UC Merced is one of the country’s best four-year universities for quality, affordability and alumni outcomes, according to Money’s 2020 Best Colleges rankings by value.

In its first year on the annual list, UC Merced is No. 76 out of 739 schools that met Money’s criteria for evaluation.

Having had the common cold appears to have programmed some people’s immune cells to recognize the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

That discovery — by an immunology team that includes a UC Merced alumnus — could change scientists’ understanding of the virus behind the current pandemic.

University of California President Janet Napolitano has selected UC Merced student organization RadioBio as one of two recipients for the 2020 President’s Award for Outstanding Student Leadership.

RadioBio, a science podcast that discusses topics ranging from molecules to ecosystems, was created in 2016 by graduate students to increase access to research in the sciences.

Despite the challenges of making an in-person event into a remote one, students in this year’s Innovate to Grow spring showcase displayed the determination, passion and innovation Bobcats are known for.

Innovation is nothing new at UC Merced, but this year, because of the coronavirus pandemic, everyone on campus has had to reimagine nearly everything they do.

But leave it up to the School of Engineering to wholly reinvent its annual Innovate to Grow showcase and competition on the fly.