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UC Merced Receives Transformational $38 Million Gift from MacKenzie Scott

December 8, 2025
The University of California, Merced today announced the largest philanthropic gift in its history, an extraordinary new commitment from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. This transformational investment, Ms. Scott’s second major gift to UC Merced, underscores growing national recognition of UC...

Engineering Professor Earns Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award

December 5, 2025
The American Society of Civil Engineers has awarded civil and environmental engineering Professor Siddaiah Yarra the Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award for Region 9. The ASCE San Francisco Section Individual Awards aim to recognize people who have made outstanding achievements or leadership in...

Graduate Students Highlight Research and Campus Life to Encourage Transfers

December 5, 2025
Three Ph.D. students recently visited Madera Community College to share research findings and highlight opportunities available to transfer students at UC Merced.   Emily Rivera Mondragon, a second-year environmental systems Ph.D. student, joined sociology graduate students Justin Barnes and Eliana...

New UC Merced Professor Delves Deep into Artificial Intelligence in Real Life

December 2, 2025
From smartphones to medical devices, artificial intelligence is a part of much of everyday life. One of UC Merced's newest professors is working to make AI more explainable and more efficient. Electrical engineering Professor Xiaofan Yu started at UC Merced this summer after graduating from UC San...

Giving Tuesday at UC Merced: Collective Generosity Transforms Lives

December 1, 2025
When UC Merced launches Give to UC Merced 2025 on Dec. 2, it won’t just be about one day of giving; the month-long campaign will be about hope, opportunity and community impact. For the 12th year, the campus joins the global Giving Tuesday movement, inviting donors to power change through the...

Ag Tech For Small Farms Highlighted at UC Merced Expo

November 26, 2025
An expo at UC Merced next week will bring together farmers, ranchers, researchers and community organizers to highlight what's possible when agriculture technology is designed for small farms. The Small Farm Tech Expo, scheduled for 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 2, will include hands-on...

A Husband’s Self-esteem Could Protect Against Preterm Births, Study Finds

November 20, 2025
A husband’s optimism and confidence might play a crucial, if often unseen, role in helping babies arrive healthy and on time. A new study from UC Merced psychology researchers found that when married fathers reported higher levels of resilience — a quality that includes traits such as optimism,...

Postdoc Leads Study to Turn Cotton Waste into Climate-Smart Compost

November 12, 2025
UC Merced researchers are collaborating on a two-year research project to develop effective composting methods for cotton textiles. The project explores manufacturing cotton waste scraps from clothing into compost to demonstrate efficient composting with the right recipe, and the compost’s ability...

Professor and Environmental Champion Bales Retires, But Research and Advocacy Continue

November 10, 2025
Professors Roger Bales and Martha Conklin arrived in Merced in 2003, the first non-administrative faculty members at UC Merced. They came with a vision: to create a research university that would serve California’s future. Now, after more than 22 years of building institutions, mentoring and...

College and K-12 Faculty Strengthen Collaboration for Central Valley Students

November 6, 2025
More than two dozen educators from kindergarten through college converged at UC Merced to discuss the challenges they're facing and the opportunities ahead. The Oct. 21 event, hosted by the Center for Educational Partnerships, featured Lupita Cortez Alcalá, the newly appointed executive director...

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