Brenda Ortiz

Key points

• Pregnant women with cannabis use disorder (CUD) had a 10 percent rate of postpartum psychiatric emergency visits, compared to 2.7 percent among those without the disorder.

• CUD during pregnancy was linked to a 40 percent higher risk of psychiatric emergency visits during the first postpartum year.

• Diagnoses of CUD in pregnant women in California rose by about 40 percent over six years.

Key points:

• UC Merced launched the Summer Investment Academy to help students build financial literacy, professional networks and pathways into finance careers before their first semester.

• Participants explored investing, entrepreneurship, personal finance and venture capital through hands-on instruction and mentorship from finance professionals.

• The academy builds on the success of the UC Investments Academy, which has engaged more than 4,500 students across the University of California system.

When farmworkers decide conditions are so harsh they have to leave the fields, the story doesn’t end there — it moves to another corner of the labor market.

For Holly Rus, ’17, a passion for health psychology and real-world impact has led to a career at the forefront of consumer sleep research. She is head of scientific research at Sleep.ai, where she directs studies designed to improve health and wellness through better sleep.

“I lead a team of researchers and serve as principal investigator on longitudinal behavioral health intervention studies testing consumer sleep products,” said Rus, who earned a Ph.D. in Psychological Sciences.

Five UC Merced doctoral students have earned prestigious awards from the Northern California Chapter of ARCS Foundation, joining a select group of scholars recognized for outstanding research.

“Congratulations to this year’s ARCS Scholars. You are being recognized as outstanding scientists who are breaking barriers and solving problems that will create a better world for all of us. We are proud to offer you our support,” said Heidi Huchberger, co-president of ARCS NCC.

In “The Miracle of Merced,” author James H. Erickson chronicles the volunteers, educators and community leaders who helped transform a patch of land into the nation’s first research university of the 21st century.

The book tells the story of the people who refused to let go of the vision: bringing a world-renowned University of California campus to Merced.

UC Merced doctoral students Brianna Aguilar-Solis, Vanessa Sanchez and Nora Shamoon have been awarded the 2026-2027 UC President's Pre-Professoriate Fellowship, a University of California Hispanic Serving Institutions Doctoral Diversity Initiative award that supports promising scholars from California Hispanic-serving institutions as they pursue careers in academia.  

Each will receive a full year of support, allowing them to focus full-time on their research.

When first-generation mechanical engineering student David Miguel arrived at UC Merced, he had no research experience, but a passion for engineering and a desire to learn.

A former foster care youth from Los Angeles, Miguel had limited resources to pursue science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). His interest in mechanical engineering was sparked at a community fair, an experience that led him to start a general engineering club at his high school.

Editor's note: This story is republished from the Spring/Summer 2026 issue of UC Merced Magazine.

Omar DeGuchy remembers the moment he left the comfort of UC Merced — the place he’d found his footing — and stepped onto what some call “the smartest square mile on Earth.” He defended his Ph.D. dissertation in applied mathematics remotely in 2020 and started a job at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

Ten UC Merced graduate researchers are gearing up to deliver the most intense three minutes of their academic careers.

Each spring, master’s and Ph.D. students across the campus’s three schools are invited to participate in Grad Slam — a fast‑paced competition that challenges scholars to distill their cutting‑edge research into a crisp, engaging presentation for a general audience.