News

UC Merced Receives $1 Million Award to Support Postdoctoral Fellows

March 11, 2026
UC Merced has received a $1 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to strengthen postdoctoral fellowships and expand research in the natural sciences. Awarded through the foundation’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Commitment, this distinction places UC Merced among just 30 leading...

Professor Henrik Larsson Publishes High-Accuracy Vibrational Energy Study in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

March 3, 2026
Recent work by Professor Henrik Larsson applies a new, highly accurate way to calculate the vibrational energy levels of molecules to acetonitrile, a six-atom molecule that is difficult to model because of its complex atomic interactions. In this publication, Professor Larsson computed thousands of...

Researchers Rebuild Microscopic Circadian Clock That Can Control Genes

February 10, 2026
Our circadian clocks play a crucial role in our health and well-being, keeping our 24-hour biological cycles in sync with light and dark exposure. Disruptions in the rhythms of these clocks, as with jet lag and daylight saving time, can throw our daily rhythms out of whack. But a group of...

Leadership in STEM: Abigail Gyamfi Honored with 2025 ACS Leader Scholars Award

February 4, 2026
Chemistry and Biochemistry (CBC) Ph.D. candidate Abigail Gyamfi has earned the 2025 American Chemical Society Leader Scholars Award. The ACS Leader Scholars program recognizes outstanding undergraduate students, graduate students and early-career scientists. “I am profoundly grateful to the...

Unlocking the Secrets of Tiny, Living Clocks Could Revolutionize Science

February 2, 2026
Biochemistry Professor Andy LiWang has spent much of his career studying how life keeps time. His work on the circadian clock of cyanobacteria — tiny, ancient organisms that share the planet with us — has shed light on one of biology’s most elegant systems. But his newest research project,...

Innovative Research Secures Coveted Fellowships for Ph.D. Students

January 14, 2026
The ARCS Foundation Northern California awarded five UC Merced graduate students with 2025-26 fellowships. ARCS advances science and technology in the United States by providing financial awards to exceptional graduate-level scholars in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. In...

Professor Jennifer Lee Receives NSF DMREF Award to Study the Dynamic Behavior of Well-Controlled Catalysts

November 25, 2025
Professor Jennifer Lee is the co-PI on a four-year project selected by the National Science Foundation Designing Materials to Revolutionize and Engineer our Future (DMREF) program. This project is led by Siddarth Krishna at University of Wisconsin-Madison, other members of the team...

UC Merced Chemist Wins DOE Award to Simulate Electron Motion at Quantum Speeds

November 5, 2025
Chemistry Professor Henrik Larsson has received a prestigious Early Career Award from the U.S. Department of Energy, becoming the first faculty member from UC Merced’s School of Natural Sciences to earn the honor. The award includes more than $878,000 in funding over five years to support Larsson’s...

UC Merced Leads National Effort to Unlock Quantum Secrets of Twisty Molecules

October 27, 2025
A team of scientists led by UC Merced is embarking on a project to understand how the twisted shapes of specific molecules can influence the spin of electrons — a phenomenon that could revolutionize solar energy, electronics and quantum computing. The research, funded by the U.S. Department of...

Abigail Gyamfi Honored for Excellence in Mentorship and Community Impact

October 6, 2025
Chemistry and Biochemistry Ph.D. student Abigail Gyamfi was recognized by the California Section of the American Chemical Society Summer Experiences for the Economically Disadvantaged (SEED) Program and the Women Chemists Committee (WCC). “This is the first time a graduate student has been...

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