Brenda Ortiz

Christi Turner will represent UC Merced and join Nobel laureates from around the world at the 2023 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting, June 25-30 in Germany.

Turner, a Quantitative and Systems Biology Ph.D. student from Orange County, was nominated and selected as part of the fourth class of the University of California President’s Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings Fellows. The meeting, a one-of-a-kind scholarly summit now in its 72nd year, will focus on physiology and medicine.

UC Merced students Brianna Aguilar-Solis, Diane-Marie Brache-Smith, Sierra Lema and Sarif Morningstar, and alumni Diana Cruz Garcia and Anna Maria Calderon were awarded fellowships from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP).

The five-year fellowship provides three years of financial support inclusive of an annual stipend of $37,000, as well as access to opportunities for professional development.

UC Merced’s Graduate Division hosted its third National Labs Day on April 21. The goal of the day-long event is to connect graduate students and postdoctoral scholars with researchers from across the nation, including campus alumni.

Associate Graduate Dean and physics Professor Sayantani Ghosh said the Graduate Division was delighted to revive the event after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

Two undergraduate student speakers will share their journeys and insights with UC Merced’s graduating class and their families and friends at two commencement ceremonies to be held this weekend.

Aneelman Brar wants to reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The Chemistry and Chemical Biology Ph.D. student’s three-minute talk entitled “From Pollutant to Fuel and New Products: Recycling Carbon Dioxide” earned her bragging rights as UC Merced's Grad Slam champion and a $5,000 prize, plus the opportunity to represent the campus at the UC systemwide finals on May 5.

Zayd Andre doesn’t consider himself outdoorsy, but the second-year computer science and engineering major from Fullerton caught the exploring bug in elementary school.

“I believe my first trek was with the Cub Scouts in first grade to Holy Jim trail in the Cleveland National Forest. This sparked my passion for nature and hiking, and since then I've tried to go on a hike at least once a month,” he said.

Taylor Fugere is one of 110 doctoral students across the United States and Canada to receive a $20,000 Scholar Award from P.E.O., a philanthropic educational organization dedicated to supporting higher education for women for more than 150 years.

UC Merced continues to be recognized nationally, with some programs leaping forward, according to U.S. News & World Report’s 2023-2024 edition of Best Graduate Schools released on April 25.

Ten graduate UC Merced students will take the stage on April 10 to compete in the Graduate Division’s Grad Slam finals.

Grad Slam is an annual University of California competition that aims to make research accessible to all by providing emerging scientists and scholars with the skills to engage the public in their work. Nearly 30 UC Merced graduate students competed in the qualifying round in March and the top 10 are advancing to the campus’s finals.

When three buses rolled onto campus on one chilly winter morning, UC Merced gave the occupants a warm Bobcat welcome.

More than 100 undergraduate students and faculty members from Universidad Autónoma Chapingo — an agricultural institution in Texcoco, Mexico — visited the UC Merced campus on March 1 to learn about research programs and graduate studies.