Patty Guerra

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 and increased lightning.

• Burned area in forests during the summer more than doubled between 2001 and 2024. Most of this recent increase - 64 percent - occurred during heat waves.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine calls for the U.S. Department of Energy to develop innovative technology and infrastructure at the intersection of the nation's water and energy systems.

The country's energy and water systems are profoundly interconnected, and disruptions can cascade rapidly across both, says the report from the Committee on Enabling DOE Regional Energy-Water Technology Pilots.

UC Merced and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have long been partners in cutting-edge science and technology.

Electrical engineering Professor Qian Wang has received a CAREER award for her research into quantum computing.

She is the 42nd researcher from UC Merced to earn a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

UC Merced prides itself on its high social mobility ranking (No. 3 among public schools in the country, according to the Wall Street Journal). Social mobility is defined as the ability to move between socioeconomic tiers.

But what does that mean, really?

A doghouse built by Bobcats for a famous beagle beat out a fairytale structure hammered together by Bears.

UC Merced's student chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers took part in the annual Timber-Strong Design Build competition in April, going up against UC Berkeley in a day-long contest at nearby Lake Yosemite.

Working in teams, students were challenged to design, construct and evaluate a two-story light wood-framed structure that balances sustainability, architectural appeal and structural performance.

After a couple of years of sufficient water, much of California is showing "abnormally dry" conditions in spring 2026, according to the state drought monitor.

And as climate change adds more swings between wet and dry conditions, researchers are working on ways to better identify, predict and manage drought.

Toward that end, a UC Merced team contributed a chapter on "Artificial Intelligence for Multiscale Drought Modeling and Decision Making," in the new book "Global Drought and Sustainability."

A recent celebration marked important anniversaries for two partners in research and innovation, but both emphasized that the most exciting events still lie ahead.

The commemoration at UC Merced on Main marked 25 years of the Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS) and the Banatao Institute and 20 years of UC Merced, one of its member institutions.

"Together these anniversaries tell a shared story - rooted in innovation and access and public impact," UC Merced Chancellor Juan Sánchez Muñoz said.

Smiling even as she cried, Nancy Rodas De Leon stood in UC Merced's University Plaza, accepting hugs, flowers, stuffed animals and cards from extended family.

"These are happy tears," said Rodas De Leon, who previously earned both her undergraduate and master's degrees at UC Merced. The eldest of five children, she said it was hard to believe she was now a doctor of psychological sciences.

"I'm incredibly grateful I got through," she said. "I can't imagine doing anything that would have led to more growth."

Services are set Sunday afternoon for Professor YangQuan Chen, whose contibutions to UC Merced's School of Engineering and to the university as a whole will endure through programs he helped build, the research he advanced, and the many students and colleagues he inspired.

Chen, a professor of mechanical engineering, died April 27. He was 59.