Undergraduate Students

Jose Garcia, a fourth-year student, will spend next summer as the only intern in Chevron Oronite’s Tribology division, with a small group of researchers who delve into lubricants, additives and the relationship between machines and fluids for the multinational corporation.

The past two years, the division has chosen an MIT student for the summer position.

“It’s going to be a great experience,” said Garcia, who hails from Santa Paula and is majoring in mechanical engineering.

As the world continues to amass more digital data everyday, thousands of skilled mathematicians will be needed to slice it into meaningful pieces that can help power the information economy.

With the help of an $880,000 grant, three of UC Merced's applied math faculty members will help prepare some of those future data analyzers.

A dozen UC Merced undergraduates will gain an edge in their journey toward a career in biomedical and behavioral research, courtesy of five years' funding from the National Institutes of Health.

Two University of California, Merced, students – Viridiana Murillo and Alexandro Perez-Tovar – won first prize in their divisions at the recent Society for Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos & Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) conference in San Antonio, Texas.

Nineteen UC Merced students joined other scholars from all over the country at the conference, presenting the details of the research they’ve been conducting.

First, UC Merced senior Julio Flores wanted to be a cardiothoracic surgeon. Then, neurobiology called his name.

Now, after research experience in diabetes, he thinks that's the field for him. In the end, it doesn't matter. Flores just wants to help people.

A fall census shows enrollment at the University of California, Merced, has reached 6,195 students — a 7 percent increase over last year — as the campus continues to grow in both numbers and competitiveness.

After evaluating a record application pool of more than 18,000, the university enrolled 1,757 new undergraduate students for the 2013 fall semester. The freshman class jumped by nearly 11 percent, from 1,495 to 1,654 — making it the largest freshman class in the campus’s history. In addition, the campus added 103 transfer students and 101 graduate students.

With UC Merced in her hometown, Hillary Brown had an easy commute to her college campus.

Six students with close ties to the San Joaquin Valley are on track to becoming physicians as part of the UC Merced San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education (PRIME). The group, which began their medical studies recently in Sacramento and represents the third cohort in the program, includes:

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.