Just because it’s summertime doesn’t mean research at UC Merced comes to a halt.

Just the opposite.

This summer, professors and students at all levels are conducting a variety of research projects on campus, off campus, in the oceans and forests and around the world.

Up in Yosemite National Park, for example, nine undergraduate students are getting a summer experience to last them a lifetime, conducting research with faculty researchers from UC Merced, scientists from the U.S. Geologic Survey and from the park.

In a move that will save the campus money, improve campus safety and help save the environment, Professor Jason Hein set up a new solvent purification system.

This project is similar to his previous efforts to reduce hazardous waste generated by his lab by capturing and recycling acetone.

The best way to explore what UC Merced has to offer is to visit the campus and see it firsthand.

Like many faculty members, Professor Katrina Hoyer is busy running a lab, teaching and researching. This year, she adds another item to her to-do list – learning how public policy is implemented and how she can advocate for policy that affects her research.

A five-year CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation is helping Professor Alberto Cerpa develop the next big breakthrough in wireless sensor networks – an autonomous, self-learning system that uses its own energy wisely.

Working to map every square inch, UC Merced master’s student Andrew Zumkehr found there are 111 million acres of abandoned farmland in the United States.

That’s a lot of space for growing biofuels that could replace between 5 percent and 30 percent of the United States' primary energy or liquid fuel demands, he said.

Two UC Merced undergraduates will spend the summer immersed in research after winning prestigious fellowships from the American Physiological Society.

Using some of the tiniest fossils in the world to help clarify how climate change is modeled has earned Professor Jessica Blois a big honor – publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

With a growing collection of artifacts and replicas, UC Merced's anthropology teaching laboratory gives students the ability to hold history in their hands.

As a founding student at UC Merced, Justin Duckham, ’09, trudged up the hill every day for classes. Now, he spends many of his days on a different hill — Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.