Patty Guerra

Fast-growing fires were responsible for nearly 90% of fire-related damages despite being relatively rare in the United States between 2001-2020, according to a new study.

"Fast fires," which thrust embers into the air ahead of rapidly advancing flames, can ignite homes before emergency responders can intervene. The study, published recently in Science, shows these fires are getting faster in the Western U.S., increasing the risk for millions of people.

Conducting research can be daunting.

UC Merced, like its sister University of California campuses, prides itself on the opportunities it provides its students to conduct research as part of their educational experiences. But the idea of looking into a concept and producing new results can seem intimidating. Where do you even start?

Natural rubber is used in a wide range of products used throughout the globe. Lab-produced rubber works for many applications but is insufficient for vital items like airplane tires and specialty medical products.

Natural rubber also is a precious resource; 90% of the plants that serve as its source for are grown in a tiny area of Southeast Asia.

A new instrument that can fabricate extremely small features and devices could have a very big impact on several STEM programs at UC Merced.

Parveen Kumar of the university's Office of Research and Economic Development leads a team that secured a grant from the Army Research Office, the Office of Naval Research and the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to buy a semi-automatic mask aligner/nanoimprint lithography module.

A major study publishing Friday in Science reveals that carbon dioxide emissions from forest fires have surged by 60% globally since 2001, and almost tripled in some of the most climate-sensitive northern boreal forests.

Annaliza Perez Torres has already accomplished plenty.

A 2019 graduate of UC Merced, Perez was named the School of Engineering's Outstanding Student in Materials Science and Engineering and earned Research Excellence recognition from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Center.

Now Perez, an engineer with Lockheed Martin, has received a Rising Technical Contributor Award from the Society of Women Engineers.

Stem cells hold vast potential to help people live healthier lives. UC Merced researchers have delved into expanded uses of these cells, which can be used to create any cell in the body, to replace damaged cardiac tissue and grow new blood vessels, among other uses.

A $5.4 million grant from one of the world's largest institutions dedicated to regenerative medicine will fund a new facility to support research in vascular models and human stem cells.

A grant from National Institutes of Health will fund research into using stem cell-derived cells to grow new blood vessels in areas that might have blockages.

The $416,741 grant will fund work by chemical and materials engineering Professor Kara McCloskey, working with co-principal investigator Ngan Huang, a professor in the department of cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford University and principal investigator at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System.

It is a serious understatement to say Carlos Diaz Alvarenga had a big year: He graduated from UC Merced, successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis and landed a position as an assistant professor at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo.

Oh, and he got married.

"Yeah, those are all big life events and I did them all in one year," Diaz Alvarenga said, laughing. "It's been super difficult, but it's been worth it."

As California lawmakers consider a package of bills aimed at increasing the production of clean energy, a major question arises: How would we store all this new power?