Brenda Ortiz

Vice Provost for Academic Personnel Teenie Matlock has been honored with the Athena Award for Academic Leadership by the Women in Technology Initiative at the University of California.

During December, the Give to UC Merced 2020 initiative tripled the campus’s goal of raising $50,000. The final tally: $163,000 raised for a variety of campus initiatives and programs.

The fundraising initiative has traditionally been held on a single day, but in 2020 it was expanded to one month with an online focus and social media-driven effort because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Public Health doctoral student Sarah Alnahari was awarded a UC Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) Predoctoral Fellowship to continue her community-driven research examining tobacco use among Arab Americans in the San Joaquin Valley.

The TRDRP is an initiative created through tobacco taxes and administered by the Research Grants Program Office at the UC Office of the President.

UC Merced’s Staff Assembly, Community Engagement Center and the Office of External Relations are partnering to host a holiday gift drive to benefit local families. Faculty, staff and students are encouraged to donate new, unwrapped gifts for youth ages 9-17.

This year might be different, but people can still help make the holiday season a little brighter for the local community.

UC Merced’s Graduate Division provides many programs throughout the year to ensure students succeed academically, including faculty and peer mentoring programs, free tutoring, and social and well-being activities to help foster a sense of belonging and community.

UC Merced doctoral student Xueting Li was selected to participate in Rising Stars 2020 Academic Career Workshop for Women in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, which will be hosted by UC Berkeley virtually Nov. 9-10.

Susan Carter, the campus’s former Director of Research Development from 2008 to 2017, has been named to the charter class of the National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP) Fellows, an organization she was instrumental in supporting in its nascent phase during her time at UC Merced.

Carter and her team assisted faculty pursuing major multi- and interdisciplinary team-based research initiatives and facilitated grant submissions by junior faculty prior to moving to the Santa Fe Institute in 2017.

Shaina Santa Cruz, a graduate student in the Public Health Graduate Program, was awarded the Central California Asian Pacific Women (CCAPW) scholarship.

University of California President Janet Napolitano has selected UC Merced student organization RadioBio as one of two recipients for the 2020 President’s Award for Outstanding Student Leadership.

RadioBio, a science podcast that discusses topics ranging from molecules to ecosystems, was created in 2016 by graduate students to increase access to research in the sciences.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has kept most students and faculty mentors off campus, UC Merced’s commitment to providing research experiences to undergraduate students has not wavered.

Over the past 14 years, the Summer Undergraduate Research Institute (SURI) has become an integral part of the research training for many students. Each summer, SURI scholars spend nine weeks performing academic research alongside faculty mentors in their disciplines.