Editor's note: This story is republished from the Spring/Summer 2026 issue of UC Merced Magazine.
Omar DeGuchy remembers the moment he left the comfort of UC Merced — the place he’d found his footing — and stepped onto what some call “the... Read More
Energy & Environment
May 1, 2026
It's time to think bigger about mitigating climate change.
Measures such as recycling, turning off lights and reducing energy use are great, but making a real impact is going to take systemic change, said Leah Stokes, a political scientist... Read More
April 29, 2026
What started as a premise in a UC Merced lab culminated with a commemoration of Project Nexus, California's first solar canal project.
On Wednesday, state leaders gathered at the Project Nexus sites in Hickman and Keyes to celebrate the... Read More
April 27, 2026
Avinav Biswas, a third‑year undergraduate majoring in biological sciences at UC Merced, has been named a 2026 Barry M. Goldwater Scholar, becoming the university’s first recipient of one of the nation’s most prestigious undergraduate... Read More
April 16, 2026
As crops go, agave holds a lot of promise for the northern San Joaquin Valley. The succulents thrive in hot sun, don't require much water and can be grown in the region's sandy soils. And though agave, mainly grown in Mexico, is best known... Read More
April 7, 2026
UC Merced saw broad gains in the U.S. News and World Report 2026 Best Graduate Schools rankings with graduate programs rising in national standing, reflecting the campus’s growing academic and research profile.
UC Merced’s School of... Read More
March 26, 2026
Professors Asmeret Asefaw Berhe and Ming-Hsuan Yang have been named 2025 fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals.... Read More
March 17, 2026
Temperatures in the 90s are nothing new to the northern San Joaquin Valley. But having them in March, as expected this week, is unusual and potentially dangerous.
An exceptionally strong ridge of high pressure will bring record-breaking... Read More
March 16, 2026
Although the oceans are the least explored places on the planet, even their depths are not untouched by humans.
Drawing on more than 2,300 seawater samples collected across the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, researchers found that... Read More
February 18, 2026
High-risk conditions for fires are increasingly happening across countries at the same time, making wildfires even more challenging to tackle, new research reveals.
Scientists from UC Merced and the University of East Anglia found this... Read More