Materials & Matter

Stretchy Material That Gets Stronger When Hit Has Exciting Potential

May 8, 2024

A flexible material that gets stronger the more it is hit and conducts electricity is shown.

Much of the work Yue (Jessica) Wang does at UC Merced sounds like science fiction: She creates flexible material that gets stronger the more you hit it. And it conducts electricity. Science, yes. Fiction, no. This work is happening. It was featured in a presentation materials scientist Di Wu...

Campus Adds New Areas of Studies for Students to Choose From

New students or those who have not yet chosen their majors will have an array of options before them. Five new majors and several new emphases, ranging across all three schools, are all coming...

The students are in New South Wales as part of a research collaborative.

Chemistry Students in Australia for Summer Research Experience

Chemistry Professor Aurora Pribram-Jones is looking for undergrads to help her get the lead out — out of drinking-water pipes. She and a colleague at Harvey Mudd College (HMC) in Claremont...

NASA mounted samples of solar films developed at UC Merced on a cube outside the International Space Station for 10 months.

First Test of Perovskite Films in Space Indicates More Resilience than Researchers Expected

Solar films developed by a graduate student in the Department of Physics at UC Merced while on an internship at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) not only survived 10 months in space with minimal...

CREST Center-led Workshops Teach Local Girls About STEM and Careers

Merced-area mothers and their daughters participated in engaging hands-on chemistry projects recently, in two sessions hosted by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded CREST Center for...

Field researcher at California's tidal pools.

Research Week Highlights Solutions to Urgent Environmental Issues

It's time for the campus and the community to celebrate UC Merced’s high-level research during Research Week, March 6 through 10. The annual research showcase, hosted by the Office of...

Professor Elizabeth Nowadnick with a computer visualization of a ferroelectric crystal structure.

UC Merced-led Research to Focus on Reducing Power Needed for Computing

Computer technology has exploded in recent years and is only going to keep growing, with ever more use of artificial intelligence and connected devices that communicate, or the Internet of Things...

UC Awards $16.4 Million in Grants to Address Climate, Energy and Health

For the first time, UC Merced faculty members from each of the campus’s three schools have been chosen as principal investigators on some of the 21 exciting new projects that are being funded...

Professor Jay Sharping, lower right, and the students in his lab will have enhanced research capabilities with refurbished dilution refrigerators.

DOD Grant Helps Upgrade Special Refrigerators for Quantum Physics Research

Researchers and students in the departments of Physics, Mechanical Engineering, and Materials Science and Engineering working on quantum physics will have upgraded equipment soon, thanks to a grant...

Undergrad Stem Cell Training Positions Students For Careers After Graduation

Rising juniors this fall will have an unprecedented opportunity for stem cell research training that could lead directly to careers in stem cell science after graduation. School of Engineering...

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