Physics

Graduate Student Earns Fellowship to Study Fusion at Livermore Lab

April 16, 2025

Sameen Yunus, left, and her faculty advisor, physics Professor David Strubbe

UC Merced physics graduate student Sameen Yunus has been awarded a prestigious fellowship allowing her to spend the next three years working at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, conducting experiments and simulations that could lead to faster fusion ignition. The UC-National Lab In-...

Alum Develops Device to Measure and Manipulate Invisible Force

As scientists build smaller and smaller machines, they need to understand the invisible forces that make those machines work. Thanks to research and the initiative of then-UC Merced graduate...

NASA Renews Campus Research Center for Another Two Years

The Merced nAnomaterials Center for Energy and Sensing (MACES) —UC Merced’s NASA-funded center for nanomaterials-based research and education — has received a two-year, $1.8 ...

Bacteria Use the Physics of Twist to Measure Their Own Size and Shape

Theoretical physics Professor Ajay Gopinathan has been working over the past decade to model a submicroscopic mystery. Now, he and a team of colleagues have verified an important piece of the puzzle...

Bobcats Help Shape Future of NASA, SPACEX Missions

As the SPACEX Crew Dragon spacecraft left Earth today to ferry two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, many Bobcats were watching the live stream with keen anticipation. It’s...

Graduate student Boe Mendewala is UC Merced's 2020 Grad Slam champion.

Physics Ph.D. Student Named Grad Slam Campus Champion

UC Merced’s Graduate Division wrapped up its annual Grad Slam competition this week, announcing Physics doctoral candidate Boe Mendewala as its campus champion. The judges awarded two...

Babies Forage for Sounds That Contribute to Language Acquisition, Study Shows

Most people wouldn’t think physics has anything to do with baby babble and human language development. But most people aren’t Ritwika Vallomparambath PanikkasserySugasree. The...

Top 10 Finalists Advance in UC Merced’s Grad Slam

Although COVID-19 has changed everyone’s plans this spring, Graduate Division staff members rallied to make sure the campus’s annual Grad Slam competition — showcasing graduate...

Two Grad Students to Attend Nobel Laureate Meetings

UC Merced graduate students, Md. Mehdi Masud and Akshay Paropkari, will travel this summer to attend the prestigious 70th Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings, an invitation-only gathering in Lindau,...

Research Reveals Collective Dynamics of Active Matter Systems

Flocks of starlings producing dazzling patterns across the sky are natural examples of active matter — groups of individual agents coming together to create collective dynamics. In a study...