UC Merced Research

research of dna strands

As it is at all University of California campuses, research is the cornerstone of UC Merced. Innovative faculty members conduct interdisciplinary, groundbreaking research that will solve complex problems affecting the San Joaquin Valley, California and the world. Students — as early as their first years — have opportunities to work right alongside them, sometimes even publishing in journals and presenting at conferences.

Top Articles

UC Merced researchers extract sewage samples from university system
Key points: Researchers successfully tested a technique that uses human sewage to measure the use of nicotine products such as cigarettes and vaping pens in a selected community. The project, led by scientists at UC Merced, can strengthen...
Depicted is the UC Merced campus in the foreground, with smoke from a distant wildfire seen behind it on a blue sky.
Key points: • Researchers found that heat waves are a critical enabler and driver of wildfire-burned areas across the western U.S. • The findings suggest that heat waves contribute not only to increased flammability, but to longer burn periods...

 

Research isn’t limited to labs with beakers and microscopes, though there are plenty of those here.

The list of UC Merced’s research strengths is long and includes climate change and ecology; solar and renewable energy; water quality and resources; artificial intelligence; cognitive science; stem-cell, diabetes and cancer research; air quality; big-data analysis; computer science; mechanical, environmental and materials engineering; political science; and much, much more.

The campus also has interdisciplinary research institutes with which faculty members affiliate themselves to conduct even more in-depth investigations into a variety of scientific topics.

Recent Articles

A kneeling woman holds the skull of a saber-toothed cat in front of a chest of drawers containing fossils.
Paleoecology Professor Jessica Blois recently became the campus’s 19th recipient of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development Program (CAREER) award. The NSF describes as the CAREER as its “most prestigious award in support...
A woman holds a broken cigarette in her hands
UC Merced has been awarded a $3.8 million grant to establish the UC Nicotine and Cannabis Policy Center (NCPC), positioning UC Merced and the San Joaquin Valley region as a leading center for the study of public health and policy matters related to...
Students in white lab coats working at a lab bench with scientific equipment.
UC Merced’s efforts to make science education more inclusive were recently given a huge boost after the campus was awarded its first Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) grant, an impressive mark of distinction that reflects the strong upward...
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Soils are carbon sinks, storing more planet-warming carbon than the atmosphere and all animal and plant life combined. But they can also release massive amounts of stored carbon into the atmosphere. Given carbon’s central role in climate change,...
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In 1998, scientists studying rheumatoid arthritis observed a population of immune cells that weren’t behaving the way they were supposed to. Immunologists noted the strange phenomenon, but decided not to pursue the subject further, and the cells were...
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Though illustrations have been used to convey ideas and information since before language existed, after Benjamin Franklin published the world’s first editorial cartoon in 1754, comics emerged a distinct avenue for visual storytelling. Now, comic art has...
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