As the first new research university in the 21st century, UC Merced was established with the mission to address new challenges facing humanity. Physical sciences play an essential role in addressing the crucial challenge of the development of inexpensive renewable energy. Our faculty advance renewable energy research through
- design of novel optics for light energy collection (Roland Winston and Sayantani Ghosh)
- and development of novel materials for energy conversion (Ghosh, Strubbe)
The University of California Advanced Solar Technologies Institute (UC Solar) is a multi-campus research institute made up of faculty from across the UC system. Launched in 2010 and headquartered at UC Merced, UC Solar conducts cross-disciplinary research that leads to new and improved solar-energy generation technologies and educates the energy industry and the next generation of energy scholars.
