Scientists know the whats and whys of using light, heat and electricity to direct chemical reactions toward an end goal. What’s less well understood are the effects mechanical force can have on chemistry. Thanks to a three-year, $1.8 million National Science Foundation (NSF) grant, a team of

As UC Merced welcomes its fourth chancellor and continues to build its reputation as a world-class research institution, it has also reached a milestone in planning for the campus’s first new school since its opening — the proposed Ernest & Julio Gallo School of Management. After more than two years

NASA’s fifth exploratory rover is scheduled to head for Mars later this month to try and answer key questions about the potential for life on the red planet. Before the rover leaves Earth, current and former members of UC Merced’s Fundamental Tribology Lab conducted critical tests that will provide

Change is everywhere at UC Merced this year, from hiring a new chancellor to the completion of a major campus expansion. The Sierra Nevada Research Institute (SNRI), an early hallmark of research excellence at UC Merced, is also making a change: After a 13-year tenure, Faculty Director Professor

While the COVID-19 pandemic has kept most students and faculty mentors off campus, UC Merced’s commitment to providing research experiences to undergraduate students has not wavered. Over the past 14 years, the Summer Undergraduate Research Institute (SURI) has become an integral part of the

Graduate Dean Marjorie Zatz has a new title, at least for now. Starting this summer, she is serving as interim vice chancellor for Research and Economic Development, filling the slot left open when Vice Chancellor Sam Traina stepped down to return to the faculty. Zatz has been shadowing Traina since

Since 2011, the Hellman Fellows Fund has provided close to 60 UC Merced assistant professors with much-needed research support in the form of seed funding. The prestigious Hellman Fellowship has launched countless careers at UC Merced and across the UC system. Now, thanks to a generous new $3.5

Maybe now more than ever, scientists need to understand the immune system. A new National Institutes of Health grant is funding a cross-disciplinary collaboration between bioengineering Professor Joel Spencer and immunology Professor Jennifer Manilay that will allow them to watch as immune-system

Esteemed archaeologist and anthropologist Mark Aldenderfer, the new Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorship endowed chair, brings his distinguished time on campus to a close this month, as he steps away from daily life of the university. Aldenderfer joined the UC Merced campus in 2010, becoming dean

The Merced nAnomaterials Center for Energy and Sensing (MACES) —UC Merced’s NASA-funded center for nanomaterials-based research and education — has received a two-year, $1.8 million renewal from the federal space agency. Continuing to build on the research already underway, Professor Jennifer Lu