News

2023 Physics Graduate Student Achievements

September 20, 2023
Congratulations to all the students below! Ph.D. degrees awarded in spring and summer 2023: Michael Leveille, “Stimuli-Responsive Polymers with Unique Shape Changing Molecular Design,” advisors Sayantani Ghosh and Jennifer Lu Bishal Parajuli, “Inhomogeneous...

Most of the Universe Composed of Dark Energy, Researchers Show

September 12, 2023
A UC Merced researcher and her teammates around the world have succeeded in measuring the total amount of matter in the universe for the second time. A new paper in the Astrophysical Journal, titled “Constraining Cosmological Parameters using the Cluster Mass-Richness Relation,”...

Mega-Interstellar Structure Fuels Undergraduate’s Winning Research

August 28, 2023
Big-wave surfing is a thing these days, but hardly anyone is riding a wave as big as the one Biviana Oseguera is on. The physics major is studying the 9,000-light-year long Radcliffe Wave, a structure made of clouds of dust and young stars that form a wave-like structure through the Milky Way...

Astrophysics Researchers Present their Work at Hawaiian Observatory

August 24, 2023
A delegation of dignitaries from the University of California Office of the President, UC Merced and UCLA were recently treated to a presentation that included the astrophysicists from UC Merced at the William M. Keck Observatory headquarters in Waimea, Hawaii. Professors Anna Nierenberg and...

Students Learn from Experts in Electronic Structure at Physics Conference Hosted on Campus

July 18, 2023
Faculty members from the departments of Physics and Chemistry and Biochemistry recently co-hosted a conference that drew about 100 faculty members, researchers and students from around the country and around the world. Physics Professor David Strubbe and chemistry Professor Aurora Pribram-...

UC Merced’s Graduate Programs Rank Among Best in the Nation

April 25, 2023
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. Designed for prospective students looking to further their education beyond college, the Best Graduate...

Graduate Students Help Further the Understanding of Diseases such as Alzheimer's

April 12, 2023
Student researchers in experimental physics Professor Jing Xu’s lab have played a critical role in a study that will help understand Alzheimer’s and other diseases that progressively destroy brain tissue. Three students, including a graduate student who has since completed his Ph.D....

First Test of Perovskite Films in Space Indicates More Resilience than Researchers Expected

April 12, 2023
Solar films developed by a graduate student in the Department of Physics at UC Merced while on an internship at NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC) not only survived 10 months in space with minimal degradation, but the little damage they did incur was more than 90 percent reversible. UC Merced...

Cheer on Campus’s 10 Grad Slam Finalists April 10

April 4, 2023
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...

Workshops Teach Local Moms and Daughters About STEM and Careers

March 27, 2023
Merced-area mothers and their daughters participated in engaging hands-on chemistry projects recently, in two sessions hosted by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded CREST Center for Cellular and Biomolecular Machines (CCBM) at UC Merced. UC Merced and UC Davis staff and students led...

Pages