All Stories

UC Merced Aerial Picture
Damaging Lightning-Caused Wildfires Likely to Increase in a Few Years, Researchers Find
September 3, 2025
Lightning from thunderstorms rolling through Central California on Sept. 2 ignited numerous wildfires, including several large fires in the Sierra Nevada foothills that had burned more than 19 square miles by Wednesday morning. The... Read More
UC Merced Agricultural Experiment Station Adds Fire, Insect and Soil Researchers
September 2, 2025
Three professors are joining UC Merced’s Agricultural Experiment Station this fall, bringing more expertise and resources to the 3-year-old research center. Management of complex systems Professor Crystal Kolden will focus on the... Read More
Play Ball! Bobcats Enjoy Grizzlies Baseball Game
September 2, 2025
Baseball fans from the UC Merced campus community celebrated the start of the fall semester by witnessing a barnburner of a game at Fresno’s Chukchansi Park. More than 250 Bobcat students, along with 100 alumni and their families, received... Read More
New Bobcat Looks to Expand Impressive Research Resume
August 29, 2025
This is the final entry of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2025 semester. Adriana Ponce Mata spent the last two summers working in one of the largest and oldest companies in the Bay Area. This fall, she... Read More
Founding UC Merced Staffer Wraps Up 45 Year in Law Enforcement
August 28, 2025
On Aug. 12, 2005, less than one month before UC Merced opened its doors to undergraduate students, Tamela Adkins joined the campus’s Police Department as support services manager. Intially, her role included managing records and evidence,... Read More
Founding UC Merced Staffer Wraps Up 45 Years in Law Enforcement
August 28, 2025
On Aug. 12, 2005, less than one month before UC Merced opened its doors to undergraduate students, Tamela Adkins joined the campus’s Police Department as support services manager. Intially, her role included managing records and evidence,... Read More
Open Arms, Open Skies: Students Welcomed at Spirited, Soggy Scholars Bridge Crossing
August 26, 2025
Spirits were high and futures bright while all else was soaked in a summer storm that made Tuesday morning’s Scholars Bridge Crossing, UC Merced’s traditional greeting to new students, a welcome unlike any before. Call them Thunder ‘Cats.... Read More
Cal-Bridge Scholar Rolando Ortega Wants to Build the Future
August 22, 2025
This is part of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2025 semester.  Rolando Ortega is closing in on his dream of earning a Ph.D. This fall, the Cal-Bridge scholar from Los Angeles County joins UC Merced to... Read More
UC Merced Marks 20th Year with New Academic Programs, First DII Season and Celebration
August 21, 2025
The new academic year is a momentous milestone for UC Merced — two decades of growth, innovation and achievement. In 2005, the first undergraduate students were welcomed on the new campus. Now, 20 years later, thousands more new students... Read More
Summer Programs Give Students a Jump Start on Academic Year
August 19, 2025
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... Read More
Simple Chemical Treatment Makes Next-Gen Electronics More Reliable
August 19, 2025
A team of international researchers has discovered that a simple chemical treatment can enhance the strength and reliability of one of the world’s thinnest materials for use in future electronics. The study, published in Nature... Read More
A New Adventure for Two Founding Faculty Chemists: Retirement
August 18, 2025
Starting a university from scratch isn’t for the faint of heart — or the slow of foot. Lucky for UC Merced, Anne Myers Kelley and David Kelley are neither. Anne, a former Olympic marathon trials qualifier, and David, a competitive cyclist... Read More
Fellowship Lifts Mission of Farmworkers’ Daughter to Improve Immigrant Health
August 13, 2025
A daughter of San Joaquin Valley immigrant farmworkers has earned the opportunity to study alongside a nationally prominent health researcher and energize her mission to improve the well-being of agricultural laborers. Fabiola Perez-Lua,... Read More
Boosting AI and Science: NSF Invests $600K in OpenDOTA Project at UC Merced
August 12, 2025
The U.S. National Science Foundation has awarded nearly $600,000 to support a groundbreaking project at UC Merced aimed at accelerating the future of artificial intelligence and scientific research. Professor Xiaoyi Lu from the electrical... Read More
Buhach Valedictorian Pursues Environmental Engineering at UC Merced this Fall
August 12, 2025
This is part of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2025 semester. Drake Ledford was an exemplary high school student, earning a 4.29 GPA. The Merced Union High School District (MUHSD) recognized him as one... Read More
UC Merced Launches Bobcat Club to Support Scholar-Athletes in NCAA Division II Competition
August 8, 2025
To mark UC Merced’s entry into National Collegiate Athletics Association NCAA Division II competition, the university is launching the Bobcat Club – an initiative designed to support scholar-athletes and the campus’s elevated level of... Read More
Vaping Produces a Chemical that Destroys Human Tissue, Research Shows
August 7, 2025
In addition to being used recreationally, marijuana and cannabidiol, or CBD, one of the cannabinoids produced by the marijuana plant, are thought to have medical benefits such as helping with chemotherapy-induced nausea, treating epilepsy... Read More
Amemiya Awarded for Research, Teaching, Outreach and Service
August 4, 2025
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... Read More
Study: Mexican American Millennials Link Success to Providing for Parents
August 4, 2025
For many first-generation Mexican American college graduates, the definition of success includes paying their parents’ bills or even buying them a home. Lifting the social or financial status of their elders is a goal that often defines... Read More
Incoming Bobcats ‘Grew Up’ with UC Merced
July 31, 2025
This is part of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2025 semester. One could say UC Merced has always been part of incoming Bobcats Ella and Satchel Ortez’s lives. The twins’ father worked for the 10th UC... Read More