Staff & Faculty News

Link Between Dementia and Air Pollution Drives Research Collaboration

April 17, 2025

Students Zeyi Moo, back left, and Yaying Wang, right, work with Professor Xuan Zhang, center, on her Alzheimer's-related research. Photo courtesy of Kate Marsh.

California’s Central Valley, famous for producing much of the food Americans eat, is also infamous for its inferior air quality and its high rates of poverty, housing insecurity and at-risk workers. Increasing epidemiological evidence has shown a correlation between long-term exposure to...

UC Awards $16.4 Million in Grants to Address Climate, Energy and Health

For the first time, UC Merced faculty members from each of the campus’s three schools have been chosen as principal investigators on some of the 21 exciting new projects that are being funded...

Sharee Sok, Korynn Maravilla and Diana Maravilla pose for a photo at UC Merced.

Working at UC Merced Is a Family Affair for Three Generations

"A family that works together, stays together" is not usually how the saying goes. But for one family at UC Merced, it describes their relationship perfectly. Diana Maravilla has worked...

UC Merced-led Research Predicts How Air Cleans Itself

Although climate change is still a very real challenge, the past decades of efforts to reduce the effects of human activities on the atmosphere have been potent enough to have thrown off the models...

Researchers Look at Tree Reproduction and Effects of Climate Change Across North America

Life and Environmental Sciences Professor Emily Moran and collaborators at several other universities are set to conduct a continental-scale analysis of climate change effects on tree reproduction...

A new website offers farmers vital growing information.

New Website Offers Farmers Vital Information at Their Fingertips

When planting crops, farmers confront numerous questions. Among them: Will it get too hot? Is it likely frost will stunt growing? When is the best time to plant? What kind of pests could...

Professor Jeanette Cobian-Iñiguez, front, and her students study heat transfer in fire in her lab.

Experts Recommend a New, More Innovative Approach to Wildfire Research

Fire scientists typically respond to agency opportunities and conduct research in response to past wildfires. But it is time they take more proactive, integrative, predictive approaches toward...

A recent demonstration of how biochar is created

Research Reveals an Easy Way Dairy Farmers Can Dramatically Reduce their Climate Impact

Adding even a small amount of biochar — a charcoal-like material produced by burning organic matter — to a dairy’s manure-composting process reduces methane emissions by 84%, a...

Rakesh Goel is the new dean of the UC Merced School of Engineering

Q&A with the new Dean of Engineering at UC Merced

Rakesh Goel developed an interest in earthquakes at an early age — and rather abruptly. As a small boy in India, one of his first memories is of experiencing an earthquake....

Nishiguchi Joins California Academy of Sciences, Recognized for Contributions to Microbiology

Molecular and Cellular Biology Professor Michele “Nish” Nishiguchi has been inducted as a Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences and was recently named president-elect for the...

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