Editor's note: In honor of Black History Month, the UC Merced newsroom is highlighting some of the organizations, services and people who serve or represent the Black community on campus.
An organization that was created in a time of tragedy and crisis has been a force for good for UC Merced's Black community.
A study conducted by a UC Merced researcher found that people injured through violent acts have a substantially higher risk to die by or attempt suicide.
UC Merced civil and environmental engineering Professor Colleen Naughton has been included in the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists' (AAEES) 40 Under 40 Program.
According to the AAEES website, the program recognizes "talented individuals who have, either personally or as part of a team, been responsible for helping to advance the fields of environmental science or environmental engineering in a demonstrable way within the last 12 months."
UC Merced public health Professor Maria-Elena De Trinidad Young has been awarded an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
The $3 million grant will fund Young's ambitious, five-year research project to understand how immigration policy influences health care access and the well-being of Latinos in rural California and Arizona counties, including Merced, Tulare, Imperial, Monterey and Napa.
Professor Roberto Andresen Eguiluz has received a CAREER award for his research into the underlying cause of arthritis.
He is the 33rd researcher from UC Merced to earn a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Roughly a third of all food worldwide goes to waste.
Outside of the obvious direct costs, that waste has numerous other repercussions: much of it goes to landfills, where it generates methane, a greenhouse gas. Resources such as water and seeds are squandered. And at the same time, one in four people are experiencing food insecurity.
"We're wasting all this food when folks are going hungry," said Erin Meyer, Sustainable Food Programs coordinator for UC Merced.
After weathering a pandemic shutdown and some fairly withering criticism, UC Merced's food service programs have emerged better than ever.
The shutdown that started in 2020 brought about abrupt changes to food service operations - prepackaged items were the order of the day to feed students, and for catering, there were no orders of the day.
Innumerable changes have come to UC Merced since ground was broken for the campus in 2002. Some of the women who helped found the campus and remain employed by UC Merced, reflected recently on the changes in the university and themselves for Women's History Month.
Engineering gets its annual turn in the spotlight next week, and UC Merced is planning a number of events to celebrate.
Engineers Week, often shortened to EWeek, was founded by the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE) in 1951. This year, it takes place from Feb. 19-25 nationally. At UC Merced, events will take place Feb. 21-28.
The setting for the celebration marking 20 years since the groundbreaking for UC Merced was markedly different in many ways from the event it commemorated.
Wednesday's ceremony, attended by hundreds of faculty and staff - including dozens from when the university opened - took place in the Dr. Vikram and Priya Lakireddy Grand Ballroom. It was a scene far removed from the empty field where ground was broken for the 10th University of California campus in October 2002.
