News

Hellman Fellowships Welcome Three New Members from UC Merced

September 4, 2025
As the Hellman Fellowships celebrate their 30th year, three more researchers, one from each of UC Merced’s schools, have joined the prestigious ranks of recipients. Electrical engineering Professor Qian Wang, sociology Professor Meredith Van Natta and Earth systems Professor Adeyemi Adebiyi will...

Damaging Lightning-Caused Wildfires Likely to Increase in a Few Years, Researchers Find

September 3, 2025
Lightning from thunderstorms rolling through Central California on Sept. 2 ignited numerous wildfires, including several large fires in the Sierra Nevada foothills that had burned more than 19 square miles by Wednesday morning. The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services recorded more...

Play Ball! Bobcats Enjoy Grizzlies Baseball Game

September 2, 2025
Baseball fans from the UC Merced campus community celebrated the start of the fall semester by witnessing a barnburner of a game at Fresno’s Chukchansi Park. More than 250 Bobcat students, along with 100 alumni and their families, received tickets to the Aug. 29 game. UC Merced staff and faculty,...

UC Merced Agricultural Experiment Station Adds Fire, Insect and Soil Researchers

September 2, 2025
Three professors are joining UC Merced’s Agricultural Experiment Station this fall, bringing more expertise and resources to the 3-year-old research center. Management of complex systems Professor Crystal Kolden will focus on the intersection of agriculture and wildfire, public health Professor...

New Bobcat Looks to Expand Impressive Research Resume

August 29, 2025
This is the final entry of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2025 semester. Adriana Ponce Mata spent the last two summers working in one of the largest and oldest companies in the Bay Area. This fall, she joins UC Merced to begin her next chapter. Through Project...

Founding UC Merced Staffer Wraps Up 45 Years in Law Enforcement

August 28, 2025
On Aug. 12, 2005, less than one month before UC Merced opened its doors to undergraduate students, Tamela Adkins joined the campus’s Police Department as support services manager. Intially, her role included managing records and evidence, overseeing the police dispatch center and hiring. She later...

Open Arms, Open Skies: Students Welcomed at Spirited, Soggy Scholars Bridge Crossing

August 26, 2025
Spirits were high and futures bright while all else was soaked in a summer storm that made Tuesday morning’s Scholars Bridge Crossing, UC Merced’s traditional greeting to new students, a welcome unlike any before. Call them Thunder ‘Cats. The ceremony embraced about 2,000 first-year and transfer...

Cal-Bridge Scholar Rolando Ortega Wants to Build the Future

August 22, 2025
This is part of a series of profiles of new UC Merced Bobcats enrolled for the fall 2025 semester.  Rolando Ortega is closing in on his dream of earning a Ph.D. This fall, the Cal-Bridge scholar from Los Angeles County joins UC Merced to start his doctoral journey. With experience spanning national...

UC Merced Marks 20th Year with New Academic Programs, First DII Season and Celebration

August 21, 2025
The new academic year is a momentous milestone for UC Merced — two decades of growth, innovation and achievement. In 2005, the first undergraduate students were welcomed on the new campus. Now, 20 years later, thousands more new students will begin their own journeys that will shape their futures...

Summer Programs Give Students a Jump Start on Academic Year

August 19, 2025
For more than 1,300 Central Valley students, this summer break wasn’t all about fun — it included strengthening their math and science skills to prepare them for the new school year and beyond. UC Merced’s Center for Educational Partnerships offered a wealth of summer programming led by its three...

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