UC Merced Magazine, Spring 2015

Illuminating the Future of Renewable Technology

Page 16

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:

� PLAN FOR UNIVERSITY GROWTH IS ON THE FAST TRACK | Page 8

� AGRICULTURE AND RESEARCH A NATURAL MIX FOR VALLEY UNIVERSITY | Page 22

� UP, UP AND AWAY WITH THE DESIGN/BUILD/FLY TEAM | Page 29

� GRADUATE STUDENT HAS A PASSION FOR TRAVEL AND RESEARCH | Page 30

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, MERCED

SPRING 2015

FEATURES

CurriCulum | Professor Katie Brokaw’s students

read their favorite children’s books with adult eyes

Donor SPotlight | Wells Fargo’s campus

partnership goes back to before uC merced

even had a campus

hAVing CoFFEE With ProFESSor

mA VAng | Professor hopes her experiences as

well as her expertise can help students

CoVEr StorY | uC Solar, the multicampus

research institute helps steer renewable energy

research and education

AlSo on thE CoVEr | uC merced’s

research contributes to the past, present

and future of Central Valley agriculture

FoCuS on unDErgrADuAtE StuDEntS

Design/Build/Fly team members are learning

how to build a competition-level drone and

how to get a leg up on their careers

our WorlD | graduate student

Bridget martinez has a passion

for research, especially in

other countries

SiErrA ViEWS | uC merced enjoys

a unique and productive partnership

with Yosemite national Park

22

DEPARTMENTS

FASt FACtS | Economic impact to

date is more than $2 billion

lEADErShiP PErSPECtiVES | learn

more about the plans for campus

expansion under the 2020 Project

in CASE You miSSED it | Catch up

on campus news in brief and check

out the latest videos

our grEEn CAmPuS | See 10

examples of why uC merced is one of

the greenest campuses in the country

goVErnmEnt rElAtionS | Students

and alumni tell legislators about the

transformative power of a uC education

WhAt’S nEW | A mobile lidar unit

will help researchers with a variety

of campus projects

16

Contents

6 8

14 10

13

28

3329

4 3

30

34

THE MAGAZINE OF THEUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, MERCED

Spring 2015

2 UC MERCED MAGAZINE | SPRING 2015

ABOUT THE COVER | The Science and Engineering Building 2 features solar panels on the outside

to help power the building and provide shade during Merced’s hottest months, which helps reduce

air-conditioning needs. The building also has a rooftop lab for UC Solar researchers to gather data.

university Communications

Welcome to the fourth issue of UC

Merced Magazine and the 10th year

of UC Merced.

First, we want to thank you for sharing your

feedback with us through the surveys in the fall

issue. We received more than 100 responses by

mail or online, and we heard you. We hope you’ll

like the increased focus on students in this issue!

This has been an amazing decade filled with

excitement, and thanks to the pioneering spirit of

our faculty members and studaents, the realization

of hopes and dreams.

UC Merced is transforming the San Joaquin

Valley from a place where a UC education wasn’t

even on young people’s minds a decade ago to a

place where it is now an attainable reality. So far,

more than 4,000 students have graduated from

UC Merced. You can read some of their success

stories in this issue.

You can also hear three students talk about

their experiences in the Discover UC Merced

video series. The new series will grow over time

to include the stories of faculty members, staff

members and more students.

Most of our students are the first in their

families to attend college. As such, they are setting

examples for their younger relatives who see all

that they have been able to accomplish and want

to follow their own paths to higher education.

UC Merced students are a precious resource for

the Valley, researching critical topics like health,

climate change, politics, history, engineering,

management and much, much more. They

are also the Valley’s new educated workforce

and because UC Merced nurtures innovation

and entrepreneurialism, they are also the next

generation of successful men and women,

bringing their expertise to the region and the state.

Each year, the campus adds more world-

class faculty researchers, too, and our programs

continue to grow in size and number. We

now offer 21 majors and 23 minors — from

anthropology and bioengineering to political

science and public health; and 13 graduate

programs, including applied mathematics,

biological engineering and small-scale

technologies, chemistry, cognitive science,

computer science, environmental systems and

interdisciplinary humanities.

The campus itself is also expanding as more

buildings come online and plans for the 2020

Project begin to take shape. The project, which is

scheduled to begin in 2017, will help determine

how the community grows around the campus.

You can read more about the 2020 Project in this

issue, too.

We hope you are as excited to see what we can

do over the next decade as we are to show you.

As always, we appreciate your interest in

our campus, and we welcome your feedback at

[email protected].

We hope to hear from you soon!

UniVERSiTY COMMUniCATiOnS

UC MERCED MAGAZINESpring 2015

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Lorena AndersonAssistant News DirectorUniversity Communications

PHOTOGRAPHY

Veronica AdroverUniversity Communications

Trevor Hirst

Jessica “JaeJae” Julian

Elena Zhukova

MAGAZINE DESIGN

Jennifer BiancucciUniversity Communications

PUBLISHED BY

University Communications

UC MERCED LEADERSHIP

Dorothy LelandUC Merced Chancellor

Thomas PetersonProvost and Executive Vice Chancellor

Kyle HoffmanVice ChancellorDevelopment and Alumni Relations

Patti WaidAssistant Vice ChancellorUniversity Communications

Cori LuceroExecutive Director, Governmental and Community Relations

VISIT US ON THE wEB

Follow UC Merced online at ucmerced.edu

lEttEr From

RESEARCHERS wITH UC SOLAR ARE wORkING TO MAkE COLLECTORS LIkE THESE MORE EFFICIENT.

SPRING 2015 | UC MERCED MAGAZINE 3

ECONOMIC IMPACT TO DATE

UC MERCED'S CONTINUED GROWTH AND CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH IS HAVING A SIGNIFICANT EFFECT ON THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY AS THE LOCAL ECONOMY REBOUNDS FROM A DEEP RECESSION.

Since 2000, local purchases, contracts and wages total more than $1.18 billion and the total of all state expenditures as of March is $2.3 billion.

Every dollar UC Merced invests in the local economy is multiplied several times over as university employees, contractors, students and others purchase local goods and services. Much of the money spent by the university represents new money to the community and generates new economic activity and jobs within the region that would otherwise not have occurred without the presence of the campus.

CURRENT NUMBER OF STAFF AND FACULTY MEMBERS AND STUDENT EMPLOYEES:

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA COUNTIES [ 44 percent ]

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COUNTIES [ 37 percent ]

SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY [ 14 percent ]

OTHER [ 5 percent ]

CONTRACT DISTRIBUTION SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY AND OTHER CALIFORNIA COUNTIES

FEDERAL [ 38 percent ]

EDUCATIONAL FEES [ 31 percent ]

STATE OF CALIFORNIA [ 10 percent ]

PRIVATE [ 10 percent ]

OTHER [ 10 percent ]

ENDOWMENT [ 1 percent ]

MERCED [ 47.92 percent ]

FRESNO [ 30.50 percent ]

STANISLAUS [ 10.35 percent ]

KERN [ 7.83 percent ]

SAN JOAQUIN [ 1.32 percent ]

TULARE [ 1.25 percent ]

MADERA [ .76 percent ]

KINGS [ .07 percent ]

MORE THAN

SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY EXPENDITURES: $1,185,489,955

STATE GOODS AND SERVICES PURCHASED: $245,480,828

STATE CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS AWARDED: $889,280,212

TOTAL STATE EXPENDITURES TO DATE: $2,320,250,996

$856 million

3,019PAYROLL SINCE 2000:

SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY BUSINESS DISTRIBUTIONJULY 2000 – MARCH 2015

RESEARCH EXPENDITURE BY MAJOR FUND SOURCE FY 14-15

STATEWIDE ECONOMIC IMPACT

FAST FACTS


LITERATURE OF CHILDHOOD COURSE

BY DONNA BIRCH TRAHAN | University Communications

in Professor Katherine Steele Brokaw’s English 30 class, students often read books they’ve read before — usually when they were little.

The class, titled Literature of Childhood, asks students to look at some of their bedtime stories and classics in ways they probably

couldn’t have as kids.

Brokaw, who joined UC Merced’s School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts in 2011 as a professor of literature, describes the course

as one that reads books for and about children that explore the hilarity of childhood, but also its poignancies. Students read poetry, short

stories and novels that use the idea of childhood to explore themes such as poverty, loss and race, and literature that is written for adults that

reflects on the formative experience of childhood.

The course’s required reading list runs the gamut from titles first produced in the fifth century BCE to more modern works. Titles this

semester include “Aesop’s Fables,” Francis Hodgson Burnett’s “The Secret Garden,” Roald Dahl’s “James and the Giant Peach,” Sandra

Cisneros’ “The House on Mango Street” and Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye.”

Brokaw even teaches the popular “Good night, Moon” by Margaret Wise Brown, a title that surprises some students — at first. Brokaw

said one student initially asked how the class could possibly have a 75-minute conversation on the short tome that was penned in 1947.

But after a few weeks, students are able to appreciate books from their childhood in a way they weren’t able to before.

“There have certainly been moments when students are ‘seeing’ so much more than they did as children,” Brokaw said. “That is one of the

things i love — when the students are able to see the gap between where they are now and their past selves. i’ve had students who’ve said

they would have never noticed a bit of repeated imagery or particular linguistic choice in a book that they had read many times when they

were younger if they hadn’t taken the class.”

For example, as children, students probably didn’t know — or care — that Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” was initially published as a

serial novel in the early 1800s and is an early example of a social novel — a fictitious work that dramatizes a real-life societal problem.

But now, students like Chelsey Garcia, who prepared a report on the book, can see and comprehend how Dickens’ story exposed the harsh

and cruel treatment many orphans endured.

“Using the stories of childhood, authors can expose societal evils and reach people in more profound and personal ways,” Brokaw said.

IS FAR FROM CHILD’S PLAY

C u r r i C u l u m Course: literature of Childhood Katherine Steele BroKaw, School of Social Sciences, humanites and arts

PROFESSOR kATHERINE STEELE BROkAw

That is one of the things

I love — when the students

are able to see the gap

between where they are

now and their past selves.”

PRoFEssoR kATHERINE STEELE BROkAw

Learning OppOrtunities

Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” offers Brokaw an opportunity to show

film clips from the first film version of “Alice in Wonderland” (1903) and clips and pictures

of other films, ballets and visual illustrations that “Alice” has inspired over the past century.

The in-class assignment was for students to discuss and envision the author’s creative

process. One small group is charged with doing a creative performance based on the book’s

final chapter. Another is asked to create visual representations of the scene in which Alice

plays croquet with the formidable Queen of Hearts.

Grant Sears, a first-year English major shared his illustration.

“i developed an idea that what children read is what they become,” he said. “i feel like there

is a correlation between children’s literature and social development.”

Sears said he enjoys the opportunity to discuss and critique stories that he read as a child.

Studying those works now as an adult and scholar allows him to view those stories and their

messages in a different light.

Another benefit, Brokaw said: in addition to fulfilling a general education requirement, the

course helps undergraduates see the possibilities of studying English and literary criticism.

“They can see how the study of literature matters in the world.”


PROFESSOR BROkAw AND STUDENT RICARDO MALDONADO SHARE SOME CHILDREN’S LITERATURE.

wELLS FARgO:

when UC Merced leaders call Wells Fargo a

longtime friend, they really mean it. The

banking institution’s partnership with

UC Merced dates back to before the campus

even opened, starting with a $1 million scholarship fund.

“it’s a local university, so it’s important for us to get involved,”

said Miranda Stelfox, vice president and district manager of the

Wells Fargo north Fresno Merced District. “We have lofty goals for

supporting education and an improved quality of life in this region.”

The nearly $2 million the banking corporation has given since

2002 has supported more than 500 transfer and high school students

with scholarships. it has also gone toward the campus’s annual fund

and, most recently, the School of Engineering’s innovation and

Design Clinic, which includes the Water, Energy, Food Challenge, the

innovate to Grow competition and the Accelerator Award.

in the Water, Energy, Food Challenge — which received initial

funding of $75,000 from Wells Fargo in 2013 and another $100,000

this year — student teams join with area organizations or companies

and, led by faculty mentors, design technologies that address

some of the San Joaquin Valley’s biggest challenges. Each project is

chosen for its potential to have significant near-term effects on the

community and/or partners’ industries and for its relation to the

water, energy, food theme.

For example, the student team that won last year’s Accelerator

Award designed a mechanical and software controller system to

precisely guide a local farm’s sweet potato harvesting trailers, so they

won’t smash the potatoes and the small farm’s profits.

The challenge gifts come through the Clean Technology and

innovation program, started in 2012 as part of Wells Fargo’s

commitment to provide $100 million to environmentally focused

nonprofits, colleges and universities by 2020. it is funded by

the Wells Fargo Foundation and is aligned with the company’s

vision and values to foster economic development, especially in

underserved communities, and accelerate the global green economy,

the foundation said. The program’s goal is to inspire innovation

from entrepreneurs and fund research entities working on critical

environmental issues.

“That’s why the Water, Energy, Food Challenge makes sense

for us,” Stelfox said. “We’re interested in fostering the economic

development of the San Joaquin Valley.”

SUPPORTING THE COMMUNITY

Though Wells Fargo is a global corporation, gifting decisions

are made locally. Stelfox said most of the people who work for

the company in this area were born and raised here, so they have

additional incentive to join forces with the groups and agencies that

are committed to the Valley’s well-being.

Support doesn’t just come in the form of money, either. Wells

Fargo is committed to volunteerism and community service, and is

looking for ways to partner with UC Merced students, who are also

highly encouraged to get involved with local nonprofits. Wells Fargo

leaders are also generous with their time, helping judge the annual

innovate to Grow competition, which gives the winning team access

to advanced learning opportunities and consultations with patent

lawyers for possible commercialization.

This year’s teams will work with clients including the California

Department of Water Resources, which needs an automated ion-

exchange system for water production; the San Francisco Public

Utilities Commission, which wants a low-flow siphon and spillway

hydraulics for Pilarcitos Dam; and D&S Farms, which wants an

automated system for sweet-potato planting, among many others.

Those community partnerships are one major main reason Wells

Fargo supports UC Merced, Stelfox said.

“UC Merced really brings everyone from the community to the

table to have a positive effect on the region,” she said.

San Francisco-based Wells Fargo has anticipated the needs

not only of the university but of its students for years. Multiple

investments in helping give local young people opportunities

to attain their higher education goals are a sign of its ongoing

commitment.

“Scholarship funds are critical to attracting the very best students,

and funding for projects like the innovation Design Clinic helps

prepare our students for success beyond their years here,” Vice

Chancellor for Development and Alumni Relations Kyle Hoffman

said. “We are deeply grateful to Wells Fargo for all the support it has

given UC Merced and look forward to our ongoing partnership.”

BY LORENA ANDERSONUniversity Communications

FRIEnD AnD PARTnER IS MAkIng A DIFFEREnCE


DOnOR SPOTLIgHT

see a video that shows how thankful UC Merced is for your support.

VIDEOALERT

we have lofty goals for supporting education

and an improved quality of life in this region.”

– MIRANDA STELFOxvice president and district manager of the Wells Fargo North Fresno Merced District


STUDENT kEEGAN O’HARE wORkS ON THE GRAPEVINE-GRAFTING DEVICE HE AND FELLOw STUDENTS DEVELOPED IN THEIR ENGINEERING CAPSTONE COURSE. THE PROGRAM IS PARTIALLY SUPPORTED BY GIFTS FROM wELLS FARGO, A LONGTIME CAMPUS PARTNER.

8 SPRING 2015 | UC MERCED MAGAZINE

Project on a Fast Track to Accommodate Growth, Provide Stability

in just 10 short years, UC Merced has grown from 875 students in our inaugural year to more than

6,200 today. One of our top challenges has been finding the resources we need to accommodate this

welcome surge in student demand.

A decade of cutbacks in state funding for our public universities and the crushing effects of

prolonged recession on the California economy have forced us to turn students away while we look for

creative solutions to add facilities as rapidly and cost-effectively as possible.

Fortunately, i have good progress to report on this front.

On March 18, i advised the UC Board of Regents of an innovative development strategy we’re

pursuing to address our space needs into the next decade. Our strategy will channel the resources and

expertise of a private development team into a fast-track, master-planned project that will more than

double the physical capacity of our campus by 2020. This will allow us to accommodate up to 10,000

students and attain a level of stability we need to focus more time and attention on our academic,

research and public-service mission.

i believe the strategy i’ve chosen for our “2020 Project” will shorten both the time and cost of

development compared with the traditional UC approach to the design and construction of buildings.

As currently envisioned, the 2020 Project will add numerous academic, residential, recreational

and student-life facilities on university-owned land adjacent to the existing campus. Buildings will be

designed and built by a single development team rather than as multiple independent projects.

The design objective is to create a space-efficient, mixed-use, living-learning community that will

serve multiple needs, encourage interaction among students, faculty and staff, and stimulate new

approaches to learning and research.

The next step is to select the private developer who will partner with us to deliver the 2020 Project.

MEETING UC MERCED’S STANDARDS

Three multi-faceted teams have already advanced through a rigorous pre-qualification process and

are expected to submit detailed proposals, including a master plan for the project and partial building

designs, later this year.

in the meantime, we will work diligently to refine our financial strategy and operational

considerations, with the goal of obtaining final approval of our recommended partner and the project

agreement from the Regents early in 2016. Construction will begin later that year or in the first half of

2017, with phased completion of facilities beginning in 2018.

The development team we select will design, build, finance, operate and maintain the entire 2020

Project. This approach unlocks significant economies of scale, operational efficiencies and long-term

pricing benefits not available in traditional procurements.

it also gives the private developer significant incentive and flexibility to meet or exceed performance

requirements and schedules built into the contract. The contract with the developer will contain

significant protections for the university in case of performance issues or default.

Once the buildings are completed, the developer will operate and maintain the buildings to UC

Merced’s standards for the life of the long-term contract. This requirement will serve as added incentive

to design and build quality facilities, as the developer assumes performance and reliability risks

WITH

Chancellor Dorothy Leland

LEADERSHIP PERSPECTIVES


normally absorbed by the university. The developer will staff these activities in compliance with UC labor policies.

The scope of the project will create hundreds of new employment opportunities at UC Merced. in addition, we estimate the project

will generate about 10,800 construction jobs and create nearly $1.9 billion in economic value in a region still struggling with high

unemployment and sluggish growth.

Statewide, the totals are projected to be 12,600 construction jobs and about $2.4 billion in economic impact.

i believe our proposal, a form of public-private partnership, makes the most prudent use of available public dollars while tapping a deep

reservoir of private capabilities well-suited to addressing our space requirements.

i look forward to updating you on our progress in future issues.

The design objective is to create a space-efficient, mixed-use, living-learning community that

will serve multiple needs, encourage interaction among students, faculty and staff, and stimu-

late new approaches to learning and research.”

– CHANCElloR DOROTHY LELAND

AN AERIAL MAP SHOwS THE AREA, OUTLINED IN BLUE, wHERE THE 2020 PROjECT IS ExPECTED TO ExPAND THE CAMPUS.

From discovering the primary genetic drivers of melanoma

to furthering research on climate change, oceanic oil spills

and cognitive functions, UC Merced faculty members and

student researchers are making headlines.

And let’s not forget the women’s basketball team, which

won the school its first conference championship.

Take a look at some of the stories you might have missed recently:

Professor Contributes to Oil-Spill ResearchResearching oceanic oil spills can be difficult when you

work at a landlocked university like UC Merced. But as part

of a large consortium of researchers from around the country,

Professor Wei-Chun Chin is looking at the roles of microbes

and chemical dispersants on each other, on oil and on the

oceans.

A proliferation of microbes after the Deepwater Horizon

accident in 2010 seemed to eat up some of the oil, but “We

need to understand it,” Chin said. “I don’t want people — or

oil companies — to take this lightly. The oil is gone from the

surface, but we do not know the long-term consequences.”

read the whOLe stOry

The Eyes Tell the Story About Moral Decisions Researchers including Professor Michael spivey found

that when prompted to respond to a moral question, people

often chose the response they were looking at. The study

challenges the notion that decisions — from whether to

give money to a homeless person to whether to separate

recyclables from trash — are rooted in pre-existing moral

frameworks.

The study is the first to demonstrate causal links between

the gaze and moral choices, but it builds on previous work

showing how gaze is reflected in simple choices, like between

different types of food.



In Case You miSSed it

Women’s Basketball Claims First Conference TitleThe UC Merced women’s basketball team captured the first team cham-

pionship in school history! The lady Bobcats defeated la sierra University

53-43. Their stifling defense was again the catalyst in the victory, as they held

la sierra to just 27 percent shooting. They also held the Cal Pac Conference’s

leading scorer to just five points on 2-for-15 shooting.


Mitsubishi Gift Expands Naturalist TrainingA $103,000 gift from the Mitsubishi Corporation Founda-

tion for the Americas increases opportunities for UC Merced

students and community members around the region to

learn about and explore local ecosystems.

Through the gift, one informal UC Merced course and

two University of California Extension California Naturalist

classes can expand their spring and fall offerings in the san

Joaquin Valley and Yosemite National Park, two of which

are open to the public. To sign up or get more information,

email Becca Fenwick at [email protected] or Chris

swarth at [email protected].


Professors Share in UC Effort to Study Climate Change

several UC Merced researchers will play important roles in

a new UC systemwide effort to study the ecological effects of

climate change across varied ecosystems.

The Institute for the study of Ecological and Evolutionary

Climate Impacts (IsEECI) will serve as a hub for the knowledge

being gathered and analyzed, and will include research on pa-

leoecology, hydrology, food, water and energy systems, wildfire

and more from UC Merced faculty members. IsEEC will use

some of the 39 UC Natural Reserves for much of its study.



Unprecedented Melanoma Study Maps Cancer Drivers

Researchers completed a comprehensive map of the

genetic makeup of melanoma — the deadliest form of skin

cancer — and identified mutational hotspots that give rise

to the disease.

Professor Fabian V. Filipp and his team confirmed the

melanoma’s preeminent drivers and identified new melano-

ma genes, which means they can provide maps to make it

easier to identify melanoma risks, develop new therapeutic

targets and create better diagnostic readouts.


New Business Incubator Links City and CampusThe city of Merced and the office of Research and Economic Development are partnering

to bring part of campus to downtown in hopes of encouraging business development and

growth and research partnerships.

The UC Merced small Business Development Center Regional Network, now in Fresno,

moves in to a leased city building first, and will be followed by a business incubator space

where startup teams and entrepreneurs can meet and work on projects.


>> CoNTINUED oN PAGE 12

Campus Earns National Recognition for Community EngagementCommunity partners at the local, regional and state levels have contributed

much to the university’s success in education and innovation. That commitment

to community collaboration was formally recognized by the Carnegie Foun-

dation, which granted UC Merced its prestigious Classification for Community

Engagement.

UC Merced is one of only 361 universities overall and one of just three UC

campuses — joining UClA and UC Davis — to have received the designation

since it was first granted in 2006.


Campus Adds More LEED Certifications UC Merced’s sustainable practices earned the campus its

15th leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (lEED)

certification for new construction and its first lEED certifica-

tion for building operations and maintenance.

Half Dome student housing, which opened two years

ago, became the fifth UC Merced building to receive the

U.s. Green Building Council’s lEED platinum certification,

the highest rating for new buildings. UC Merced is the only

campus in the nation with lEED certification for all its facilities.

The Classroom and office Building 2, under construction, is

also expected to achieve platinum status.



In Case You miSSed it

Do you think you know UC Merced? Not until you’ve heard these inspiring stories.

New students have been accepted for Fall 2015. see a video that gives them a campus preview.

Solar, Water Research Rewarded with Competitive UC Grants

Research into sustainable water supplies and viable solar

energy solutions won nearly $5 million in competitive grants

from the University of California. The grants will fund the

continued research of UC solar (see the cover story on

Page 16), and the new intercampus UC Water security and

sustainability Research Initiative, amalgamating experts

from across the UC system to build a strategic base of water

knowledge to help California and the nation achieve a wa-

ter-secure future.


CoNTINUED FRoM PAGE 11

VIDEOALERT


the campus’s 1-megawatt solar array produces two-thirds of the campus electricity load on a summer afternoon, and 20 percent of its annual electricity needs.

Rooftop solar panels are being installed on many campus buildings this spring, and will provide about another megawatt of electricity when they are online by the end of the year.

Dining Services served 20 percent more customers while reducing paper waste generated from residential dining by 2 percent since mid-2012, by employing reusable food containers for customers taking their meals to go.

UC Merced developed the first pre-consumer and post-consumer food-waste composting program in Merced County.

All buildings on campus have received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification through the U.S. Green Building Council.

Per capita water use dropped by 43 percent since 2007, going from 22,564 gallons a year per person to 13,290.

HERE ARE JUST A FEW EXAMPLES OF WHAT WE MEAN WHEN WE TALK ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY BEING A PART OF THE FABRIC OF UC MERCED:

we are the only university in the nation to have a triple zero commitment: to use zero net energy and create zero net greenhouse gas emissions and zero landfill waste by 2020.

Six water-bottle refill stations allow campus community members to refill rather than create more plastic waste by buying bottled water. The residence halls will get 13 more refill stations this summer.

More than 1,000 students enrolled in courses that make up the sustainability minor during the 2013-14 academic year.

Campuswide purchases focus on environmentally preferable characteristics, from compostable cups and recycled building materials to cleaning supplies and green vendors.

The campus set a 33 percent minimum requirement for locally sourced fresh food products from prime food suppliers.

Ma Vang

y any objective measure, Ma Vang would be considered a success story.

Born in a refugee camp in Thailand, Vang was a fourth-grader with no grasp of the

English language when her family immigrated to the United States. She mastered the

language out of necessity, picking up nuances from friends on the playground, from

interacting with her teachers and from translating conversations for her parents.

She thrived in school, ultimately earning her Ph.D. at the University of California,

San Diego. And in the fall of 2014, she became the first professor of critical race and

ethnic studies and Hmong studies at UC Merced.

Still, Vang bristles at any suggestion that she is somehow extraordinary.

“My story is not that exceptional,” she said. “it’s a story that continues to have struggles. i feel

privileged to be in this position and do the work i do and be at an institution that’s focused on

research and teaching and serving the community, but at same time, i don’t want people to think

i’m the model minority.”

nor does she seek sympathy for her childhood years. Her family had been in the refugee camp

for seven years before she was born, and lived there for nearly 15 years in total. Vang said despite the

obvious challenges, she has many positive memories from her time in the camp.

“it was such a lively place,” she said. “it was enclosed and regulated and maintained, and there

was a lot of violence, but many people felt like it was first time they were able to interact with other

Hmong people who had come from different parts of Laos. There was a lot of cultural vibrancy.”

haViNG Coffee WITH

BY jAMES LEONARDUniversity Communications

Hear Professor Vang speak about her early education.


Vang’s higher education

2005Received her bachelor’s degree

in ethnic studies and general

science from the Robert D.

Clark Honors College at the

University of Oregon

2007Graduated from the University

of California, San Diego, with a

master’s in ethnic studies

2012Earned her Ph.D. in ethnic

studies at UC San Diego

2012Worked under the UC

President’s Postdoctoral

Fellowship at the University of

California, Riverside

2014Named first professor of Critical

Race and Ethnic Studies and

Hmong Studies at UC Merced

VIDEOALERT

Historical records are always incomplete. Historical knowledge is always incomplete, always being

reconstructed by the nation-state and the people themselves, who want to tell their stories.”

– PRoFEssoR MA VANG

RIGHT PLACE, RIGHT TIME

The family moved to California, which is now home to about

91,000 Hmong people. More than 7,000 of those are in Merced,

which has the highest per-capita Hmong population in the U.S.

That’s part of what drew Vang to UC Merced, and the timing

could not have been better.

Vang’s arrival last year coincided with the planning stages of

Hmongstory 40, a celebration of the 40th anniversary of the

migration of Hmong people to the U.S. from Laos and Thailand

following the Laotian Civil War — also known as the United States’

“Secret War.” A traveling exhibition and anthology of Hmong

experiences are planned for Hmongstory 40, which will feature

events in Merced, Fresno and Sacramento over the next year.

The work itself, which has Vang exploring the history of Hmong

contributions to California agriculture, is a natural fit. For her

dissertation, Vang began researching the Secret War but quickly

found that even declassified government documents about the war

were heavily redacted. That led her to broaden her perspective,

focusing on the ways in which recorded history is colored and

clouded by its sources.

“Looking at those redacted documents, the conclusion was that

even if they were complete, we still wouldn’t know the full history,”

Vang said. “Historical records are always incomplete. Historical

knowledge is always incomplete, always being reconstructed by the


nation-state and the people themselves who want to tell their

stories. Whether those align with state stories or provide

an alternative to the official narrative, they also present a

complex and incomplete and fragmented narrative of

the history.”

NEw BEGINNINGS

Vang’s personal story, already colorful and inspirational, remains

unfinished. She arrived in Merced last year with her husband, Kit

Myers, a UC Merced Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow researching

transnational and transracial adoption, and their then-2-month-

old daughter, Kia.

“Merced has been the perfect place for me to go through all those

transitions,” she said. “it’s a small town. it’s quiet. We can go out

if we want to and not have to wait in line or wait in traffic. We’re

starting to explore the area, doing a little bit of biking.”

One of Vang’s primary professional goals is to connect with

students who are facing challenges similar to hers, and to be a

resource as they navigate their own journeys.

“it’s such a privilege to be in this position,” Vang said. “To have a

job in a community where my research is relevant for a diverse and

underserved population, and a region where students will benefit

from this growing investment in education — that is an amazing

combination to have happened.”

CENTER PHoTo: PROFESSOR MA VANG’S YOUNGER SISTER, MAI, LEFT, HER MOTHER, AND HER IN THE BAN VINAI REFUGEE CAMP IN THAILAND IN 1989 OR 1990.

The multicampus research institute helps steer renewableenergy research and education

BY jOEL PATENAUDE

There are more than 2,100 solar

companies at work throughout

California, employing 54,700 people.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joel Patenaude is sun deprived several months a year in Madison, Wis., where he’s the managing editor of silent sports Magazine. He has many years of professional newspaper experience, covering state and local politics, Native American treaty issues, the environment and a wide array of other topics.

UC SOLAR RESEARCH LABS TAkE ADVANTAGE OF CALIFORNIA’S PLENTIFUL SUNLIGHT.


ill Guiney is strongly considering

assembling his company’s solar energy

collectors in Merced County.

Although based in Florida — which has

no shortage of sunlight — the Artic Solar

CEO is drawn to California’s San Joaquin

Valley and the solar energy brain trust

centered at UC Merced.

“it’s all integrated there: private and

public partners in the solar industry. i

would be close to the R&D. And utilizing

the graduate student researchers there is a good possibility,” said

Guiney, former manager of renewable energy programs for the

multinational technology company Johnson Controls.

The solar industry is adding jobs 10 times faster than the overall

economy, driving policies and attracting millions of dollars in

investment from major corporations. According to news reports in

Mother Jones magazine, the boom isn’t slowing, either. Data from

market analysis firm GTM Research shows 2014 was solar’s biggest

year ever, with 30 percent more photovoltaic installations installed

than in 2013, the magazine reported.

And when it comes to leading solar technology, people like Guiney

are increasingly looking to the University of California Advanced

Solar Technologies institute (UC Solar), a nine-campus effort led by

Professor Roland Winston at UC Merced.

UC Solar recently won the largest UC Multicampus Research

Programs and initiatives (MRPi) grant of those awarded —

$2.7 million — and is poised to lead the state into the future of

solar energy research and development, as well as public policy

surrounding it.

Winston’s research team tested Guiney’s commercial design of

Winston’s External Concentrating Parabolic Collector (XCPC)

panel, which is capable of generating thermal temperatures

of nearly 400 degrees Fahrenheit using nonimaging optics

technology.

UC Solar, Guiney said, “has been very helpful. They did the

initial testing of this technology — rock-solid testing, not the ‘as

seen on TV’ kind.”

‘A ShOT IN ThE ARM’What started in 2010 as an initiative between UC Merced,

Berkeley and Santa Barbara now involves nine of the 10 UC

campuses. That Merced, the university system’s youngest campus,

serves as the headquarters for UC Solar, is recognition of director

Winston’s stature in the field of solar research.

Winston is considered the father of nonimaging optics, and his

invention, the compound parabolic collector (CPC), is sometimes

known as the “Winston solar collector.”

Winston’s attention is focused on developing highly efficient

and affordable solutions to real problems.

“We’re out there globally developing the solar technology the

world will need 20 to 50 years from now,” Winston said.

UC Solar is also addressing needs in far corners of the world.

That’s why Winston sent one of his graduate students to Mongolia

to set up an XCPC demonstration project.

The young man, who hadn’t previously left California, “went

to the coldest inhabited place on Earth in January; where the

burning of coal has so affected the air quality that it’s like

breathing smoke,” Winston said.>> COnTinUED On PAGE 20

we’re out there globally developing the

solar technology the world will need 20

to 50 years from now.”

– PRoFEssoR ROLAND wINSTONUC solAR DIRECToR

There are more than 17,500 megawatts of cumulative

electric solar capacity operating in the U.s. — enough

to power more than 3.5 million average american homes.

PROFESSOR ROLAND wINSTON AND HIS STUDENTS wORk ON A VARIETY OF PROjECTS INVOLVING

SOLAR COLLECTORS LARGE AND SMALL.

The experiment at Mongolia national University has been so

successful, the professor said, a solar-heated greenhouse might be

built to provide locals with otherwise hard-to-get fresh produce.

Demonstrations of the technology are also underway in india,

China and Dubai.

Guiney said this solar thermal technology has the potential

to address the vast unmet commercial needs that lie between

environmentally conscious homeowners, cutting their utility bills

with solar panels on their roofs, and large power companies facing

government mandates to provide customers with renewable

sources of electricity.

The high temperatures XCPCs produce at 50 percent thermal

efficiency can be harnessed to run large air conditioning systems

in commercial buildings, desalinate ocean water and generate

electrical power, all functions that are in high demand throughout

California.

“This technology is a real shot in the arm for the solar industry.

With this, UC Solar can achieve a rebuilding of the solar thermal

industry, and reduce emissions,” Guiney said.

GAThERING INTERESTFlexible organic solar cells are in

development at UC Davis, under the

direction of Professor Pieter Stroeve.

He said this technology, resembling

flexible high-gloss paper, boasts 12 to

15 percent efficiency in converting

the sun’s rays to electricity. That’s a

commercially viable level, assuming

the solar cells can be mass produced.

“They can be used on complex

surfaces like that of a car, so that its

battery can store the energy captured,” he

said. “The cost will eventually be very cheap.

But right now, the solar cells need to be synthesized

in a lab before they can be scaled up for manufacturing.”

UC Davis joined UC Solar a couple years after it was founded,

and that association has increased the visibility of research being

conducted on the campus and through the California Solar

Energy Collaborative (CSEC), which is part of the California

Renewable Energy Center (CREC), Stroeve said.

Being a UC Solar member now means getting a share of the

new MRPi grant, nearly 80 percent of which will be spent in

direct support of graduate research and undergraduate education

in the solar sciences.

“That’s important because it brings together researchers from

other departments and outside the university system,” Stroeve

said. “it helps get people all the more interested in participating.”

Each UC Solar member campus will attempt to leverage the

intra-university system investment in its efforts to secure federal

funds and private-sector projects.

FINDING REAL ANSWERSThose in the business of selling, installing and maintaining the end

products do come to researchers with problems in need of solutions.

“For example, there’s a reason you don’t see solar farms on the

coast,” said Professor Michael isaacson, UC Solar’s co-director at UC

Santa Cruz. “it’s because birds poop on the panels, which cuts into

their efficiency. Dust from farmlands settles on them, too. it sounds

mundane, but it’s a serious problem. So we’ve been asked to develop

self-cleaning solar panels.”

UC Riverside has a campuswide and city-involved Sustainable

integrated Grid initiative through which a variety of emerging solar

energy technologies can be tested. This “microgrid” includes charging

stations for electric vehicles and car parks covered by solar panels.

And engineers, economists and social scientists are on board at

UC Santa Cruz to study how industry can reassure the public that

renewable energy can be reliable, affordable and a means to local

energy independence.

But energy derived from the sun and wind is intermittent, meaning

it isn’t generated when the sun’s not out and the air is still, “which

makes people nervous about integrating renewables in

the energy grid,” isaacson said.

“We’re trying to devise strategies and

devices that can sense how we’re using

electricity and help us can save energy,”

he said. “From an educational point of

view, we want to equip students who

go into public policy with a technical

background.”

SEEING ThE FUTUREisaacson said his students have

looked to Germany and Denmark, where

the governments subsidize investment in

renewable with ambitious goals. Denmark, for

example, hopes to be 100 percent free of fossil fuels by

2030.

in contrast, California is requiring its electric service providers to

obtain 33 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020

— “one of the most ambitious renewable energy standards in the

country,” according to UC Solar’s MRPi grant renewal proposal.

The UC Merced campus is well on its way. Seventy-five percent of

its energy needs will be met by renewables by the end of 2016 and

100 percent shortly thereafter, making it the first campus in the world

with that distinction.

To help reach California’s target, the state will invest $900 million

collected from rate payers on clean energy research, development and

demonstration projects via the Electric Program investment Charge

(EPiC). This could include putting money into existing California-

based research centers, such as UC Solar.

“We’re keeping close tabs on EPiC,” Winston said. “i’m all for

public funding of research. Any amount can help, if spent wisely.”


UC SOLARCOnTinUED FROM PAGE 17

average installed residential and commercial

photovoltaic system prices in California dropped

by 3 percent in 2014. National prices have also

dropped steadily — 49 percent since 2010.

THE SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING BUILDING 2 FEATURES A SOLAR INSTALLATION THAT HELPS POwER THE BUILDING.


From History to the Future,

C Merced is not known as an agriculture school like

UC Davis is. But because Merced is in one of the

world’s most productive farming areas, agriculture-

related research is inevitable and growing all the time.

These days, researchers and students at UC Merced

are tackling a number of issues vital to the region’s

and the state’s agricultural past, present and future.

From gathering documents and oral histories at risk of being lost

to solving a problem that was costing just one Atwater farm tens

of thousands of dollars a year, UC Merced is committed to causes

close to home.

it’s not hard to see how some projects, ultimately, will have

effects beyond California, as UC Merced develops technologies

unlimited by geographic boundaries, including a graduate student’s

efforts to map usable farmland in the United States and several

professors’ work on using excess biomass, not just for energy but

for soil improvement, too.

Such is the case with engineering Professor YangQuan Chen’s

work in UC Merced’s Mechanics, Embedded Systems and

Automation (MESA) Lab. Laypeople know it as a drone lab, and

it is the reason Chen left his position as a tenured engineering

professor at Utah State University to come to UC Merced in 2012.

At Utah State, the Center for Self-Organizing and intelligent

Systems focuses on threat detection, surveillance and response.

That’s the mission that immediately comes to mind when most

people hear the word “drone.”

But MESA’s eyes are on sustainability — remote sensing that can

survey wider geographic areas quickly, yielding more information

than is obvious to the naked eye.

“i challenge my students, ‘justify your existence,’” Chen said.

“Sustainability is such a big issue in the Valley, and this is a great

way to do that.”

MESA already holds eight Federal Aviation Administration-

approved certificates authorizing operation for its six-wing drones,

allowing them specific areas where they can fly.

These are not your cute little radio-controlled planes. They

weigh 11 pounds and have 72-inch wing spans. They can spend

45 minutes in the air, covering 2,000 square acres, and they do

much more than a human can in far less time — with fewer safety

concerns.

eyes in the sky and On the grOundChen’s research has demonstrated the technology’s potential

value to the agriculture industry. Flying with two cameras

mounted, the planes captured images just seconds apart, depictions

that were later analyzed for early signs of water distress.

“Remember the word ‘early.’ When you can detect water distress

with the human eye, it’s too late,” he said.

it’s a huge issue for farmers everywhere, but particularly in the

San Joaquin Valley with its chronic water problems. Having such

information would let farmers adjust irrigation quickly, avoiding

overwatering or financial loss from crop damage.

UBY DEBRA LEGG

(Biochar) has generated enough interest around

here in the Valley and many other places that I don’t

doubt this will be tested at the farm scale soon.”

— PRoFEssoR ASMERET ASEFAw BERHE

Researchers Increasingly Focusing on Agriculture

And maybe someday, the drones

will examine the 111 million acres of

abandoned farmland in the United

States found by graduate student

Andrew Zumkehr using satellite images,

census data and computer modeling.

His mapping project showed a lot of

space for growing biomass to replace

fossil fuels, but some of the land could

also be used to help feed people.

But the key questions for Chen

and his lab students right now are how to make the technology

accessible and affordable. Operator training will be important, too.

The FAA doesn’t require certification to fly drones weighing less

than 4 pounds, something Chen sees as a potential problem as use

becomes more common.

“A guy buying a drone off eBay and starting to fly it? From my

point of view, that’s no different than a DUi,” Chen said. “You can

put people at risk. There have to be standards and training.”

While Chen looks to the sky, soil biogeochemisty Professor

Asmeret Asefaw Berhe focuses downward.

Her lab’s research looks into how soil affects the climate system.

Along with students and postdocs in her lab, and in collaboration

with Professor Teamrat A. Ghezzehei, Berhe has conducted several

studies into the use of biochar, a byproduct of burning biomass

under oxygen-limited conditions.

Biochar can reduce the release of greenhouse gases by

sequestering more carbon in the soil system for a longer time.

Biochar is also gaining a lot of attention for its potential to promote

better water and nutrient storage in soil, Berhe said.

One of her studies using local soils from an Atwater almond

orchard found that nutrient-enriched biochar acted as a slow-

release fertilizer, supplying nitrogen and phosphorous the plants

need. Berhe’s lab enriched the biochar with nutrients derived from

flushed dairy cow manure collected from a lagoon at a Merced

County dairy.

“This is definitely a win-win,” she said. Taking out excess

nutrients from the dairy effluent helps the environment by

removing some of the nitrogen and phosphorous in the manure

before they enter the surface and ground water systems, she said.

Those excess nutrients, in turn, become a soil amendment that

helps other plants thrive.

Adding the nutrient-enriched biochar to soil reduced the gaseous

flux of greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide, and

promoted better carbon and nitrogen retention in coarse-textured

soils that are common in Valley agricultural systems.

Berhe believes the technique can be applied on a larger scale if a

sustainable way can be found to produce enough biochar and apply

it to large areas safely.

“Our laboratory-based work with biochar has generated enough

interest around here in the Valley and beyond that i don’t doubt

this will be tested at the farm scale soon,” she said.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR: A long-time Central Valley resident and former editor at The Modesto Bee, Debra legg is a freelance writer now based in Michigan. While at The Bee, she coordinated government and political coverage. stories she worked on included crimes that drew national attention and in-depth investigations into local government agencies.

Remember the word ‘early.’ when you can detect

water distress with the human eye, it’s too late.”

— PRoFEssoR YANGQUAN CHEN

PROFESSOR YANGQUAN CHEN’S LAB IS TESTING DRONES CAPABLE OF LANDING ON wATER, TAkING SAMPLES AND

RETURNING TO THE LAB — jUST ONE OF MANY APPLICATIONS THAT COULD HAVE AGRICULTURAL IMPLICATIONS.

PROFESSOR ASMERET ASEFAw BERHE, LEFT, AND HER STU-DENTS STUDY SOIL SYSTEMS.

>> COnTinUED On PAGE 24

steering sweet CrOp harvestingLast spring, engineering Professor Ashlie Martini’s students

tested and solved a problem at another Merced County farm,

building a workable solution in the span of one semester.

Six students in her undergraduate — yes, undergraduate —

capstone design program spent the semester working with D&S

Farms in Atwater. The family-owned operation had a problem that

cost the business $40,000 to $60,000 a year in extra labor and lost

harvest.

The challenge: Hard-to-control harvesters with trailers attached

were inadvertently crushing sweet potatoes. D&S Manager Brian

Carter was convinced there had to be a better way, and was quickly

onboard when Martini went into the community in search of real-

life problems her students could tackle.

Carter knew what the solution was: Finding a way to get the

trailer to follow precisely behind the harvester without potato-

crushing sway. He’d just never seen anything that would accomplish

that.

“We told them this is the problem we need fixed. We said we

really need and want this right now,” Carter recalled. “We gave them

free rein about how to do it.”

By the end of the semester, the students had designed and built

a sensor-driven mechanism that

attaches to the trailer hitch, helping

the harvester’s hydraulics adjust as

it pulls the trailer through the rows.

it wasn’t just a prototype. it was

a working device, dubbed Sweet

Steering.

“The hope is always that you’ll come up with something

that works,” said Sean Lantz, who was part of the team as an

undergraduate and now is pursuing a master’s at UC Merced. “We

did that.”

Carter was thrilled.

“it actually worked, right off the bat. There were a few software

glitches, but they fixed those right away. The second time out, it

worked perfectly.”

The challenge was doing it in one semester.

“Fifteen weeks sounds like a long time. But by the time you talk

to clients, design, prototype and test, it’s not,” Lantz said.


UC MERCED STUDENTS DEVELOPED AND TESTED A SOLAR-POwERED TRACTOR.

see a video about the sweet steering project.

VIDEOALERT

COnTinUED FROM PAGE 23

The time span seemed even tighter because the team

members — five mechanical engineering majors and one majoring

in computer science — first had to get up to speed on agriculture.

Lantz, for example, grew up in Merced and had worked in

almond orchards and on dairy farms when he was in high school.

But he was by no means intimately familiar with sweet-potato

farming.

neither were his five colleagues, and that led to theories that

were quickly rejected. One of the team’s early ideas was to create

a laser-guided system that could detect the potatoes, Martini said.

D&S nixed that one.

“You know there’s sand and dirt out there, right?” Martini

recalled.

But it was that type of dialogue that ultimately made the project

such a success that all the farm’s harvesters now are equipped with

Sweet Steering mechanisms. And it was that type of learning —

communications, working with clients, listening to their needs and

perseverance as theories fail — that made the class invaluable.

Lantz considers the capstone class the most important one he

took as an undergraduate.

“There’s a big difference between what you learn in the

classroom and what you need to be able to do to solve real

problems in the real world. This project was a challenge. it wasn’t

always the most fun thing i’ve ever done, but it worked out in

the end.”

Martini considers the project important because it demonstrates

the power of having UC Merced as a neighbor. D&S is roughly 20

minutes away from the university, though its owners had never

visited campus.

“But they’re the reason we’re here,” Martini said. “The purpose of

this school is to connect with the people and the community.”

Carter’s a believer now, and D&S already is working on a second

project with UC Merced.

“We’re going to continue working with them. it’s a great

relationship.”


It actually worked, right off the bat. There were a few

software glitches, but they fixed those right away.

The second time out, it worked perfectly.”

— D&s FARMs MANAGER BRIAN CARTER

THE SwEET STEERING TEAM DEVELOPED A MECHANISM TO HELP DRIVE HARVESTERS STRAIGHTER THAN A HUMAN CAN, HELPING A LOCAL FARM PROTECT SOME OF ITS CROPS.

>> COnTinUED On PAGE 26

vaLLey agriCuLture’s rOCky pastHistory Professor Mario Sifuentez’s work also began with a local

relationship, when the Livingston Japanese American Citizens

League was looking for ways to preserve the history of the Yamato

Colony.

The goal is to create the Yamato Colony Digital Museum, an

online repository that will let researchers and students worldwide

delve into a multi-layered story of immigration, economic

development, internment and reintegration.

The project, in collaboration with the UC Merced Library,

will include digital documents, photos and videos, audio of oral

histories, three-dimensional mapping and interactive timelines.

Sifuentez sees the work as a pilot for “Stories of the San Joaquin,”

a potential digital museum filled with stories of the people of the

Valley.

The story of the agricultural

Yamato Colony begins in the early

1900s, when a “Japanese Christian

utopian colony” was established

on 3,200 acres in Livingston,

forming the colony that began to

prosper with the formation of the

Livingston Cooperative Society in

1914. in 1927, the cooperative split

into the Livingston Fruit Growers

Association and the Livingston

Fruit Exchange. The Yamato

community thrived, playing a vital role in production of fruits,

vegetables and nuts in the area.

The colony fell apart during World War ii. After the bombing

of Pearl Harbor, more than 100,000 Japanese-Americans — most

of them American citizens — were taken into custody and sent to

internment camps.

Because Yamato Colony leaders had turned legal ownership of

their property over to a European-American before the internment,

they fared better than most and were able to reclaim their land and

farms after World War ii ended. The Fruit Growers Association and

the Fruit Exchange joined in 1956 to form the Livingston Farmers

Association.

Life still was not pleasant, though.

“Everyone assumes that everyone was reintegrated and life went

back to normal, but that wasn’t the case,” said Sifuentez, who’s in

the process of interviewing and collecting oral histories. “People lost

land, and they lost homes. People were shot and accosted verbally.

Reintegration was a long, long process.”

neama Alamri, a second-year graduate student at UC Merced who

was born and raised in Bakersfield, is combing the UC system as well

as local sources to find out what information is where.

“There’s already a great collection of original resources,

documents and histories. We need to create an inventory of these

resources. They are literally in boxes somewhere in a library. We will

have to find those boxes.”

Once the boxes are located, there’s the question of digitizing them.

“if you’re lucky, someone will unbox it and scan it for you,”

Alamri said. “Those are the good days.”

And once the digitizing comes into play, the library becomes

involved.

Emily Lin is head of digital

assets for the UC Merced Library.

As such, she’s tasked with finding

ways to digitally curate everything

from dissertations to research

projects to collections. That last

part of her job description has her

immersed in the Yamato Colony

work, plus a plan for a pilot

project to digitize and archive the

University of California Extension

Service’s history.

She’s also working on an agreement with Mark Arax, an award-

winning journalist and author who’s compiled more than 200 oral

histories in the Valley. Arax, who was born in Fresno and still lives

near there, has authored three non-fiction books about California.

He is in the process of transcribing the interviews, and Lin hopes to

add the transcriptions and digital audio to the library. The project

dovetails perfectly with Sifuentez’s long-term goal of creating

“Stories of the San Joaquin.”

in interviewing Yamato Colony residents for his current project,

Sifuentez said he’s always struck by their deep passion for making

sure the story isn’t forgotten.

“They make very clear connections to how this history is still

relevant today, to Muslims in the post-911 world, for example,” he

said. “There’s a very palpable anxiety about it to this day, a concern

that this never happens again.”


COnTinUED FROM PAGE 25

YAMATO COLONY DIGITAL MUSEUM PROJECT

YAMATO COLONY:A Brief History

Early photograph from Yamato Colony, Livingston CA

Kishi family who returned from Granada Relocation center in April 1945. Seated, left to right: Shozo Kishi, Chiyoko Kishi, Tajiro, Kishi; the child in front is Sheldon Kishi-Livingston,CA, from UC Berkeley Bancroft Library.

Mr. Kajiro Tanioka photographed by Iwasaki,Hikaru-Merced CA, from UC Berkeley Bancroft Library.

Article published April 2, 1945 in the “Merced Sun Star”, from University of Pacific Japanese American Internment Collections.

n 1907, businessman and newspaper

publisher of Nichibei Times,

Kyutaro Abiko established the

Yamato Colony, a Japanese

American community in Livingston,

California.

The colony possesses a rich history

that has survived over a hundred years through

multiple generations. Members of the colony

have played a vital role in the local production

of fruits, vegetables, and nuts, and contributed

to the founding of the Livingston Farmers

Association.

The colony’s identity as a Christian community

has also been distinctive and has held the

community together to this day. World War II

marked an important turn in this history when

President Roosevelt issued executive order 9066

and forced the residents of the colony to

evacuate and relocate to internment camps.

Following the end of the war, many of the

colony’s returning members retained their land

but also came home to persisting anti-Japanese

sentiment. Despite these difficulties, the

Yamato Colony has continued to prosper and

hold a significant place in the San Joaquin

Valley’s history.

I

he transformative power of college education was on full display at the state capitol this spring, as more than 170

students, parents, alumni and other University of California supporters met with lawmakers to talk about how

investment in UC benefits California and its students.

Delegates representing each of UC’s 10 campuses spent UC Day, held each year in March, meeting with members of the

Legislature to share personal stories of how their UC educations bettered their lives.

“i’m here because of how much i believe in UC and all it stands for,” said Domonique Jones, a junior at UC Merced who is

studying political science. “My mother, a single mom, didn’t have anything she could pay for college, but by the grace of UC

Merced i was able to get enough (financial aid) to pay for my education.”

Like Jones, half of all UC students have their tuition fully covered through programs such as UC’s Blue and Gold

opportunity plan, which helps students from families with household incomes of $80,000 or less.

“Blue and Gold made college possible for me,” Jones said.

By investing in students and their educations, the state reaps major returns in terms of workforce development and the

income mobility of its residents, visitors told legislators.

Yet the state invests far less in the university today than it did two decades ago.

MAkING HIGHER EDUCATION A BUDGET PRIORITY

in inflation-adjusted dollars, state funding for UC is at the same level

today as it was in 1997 — yet UC educates 75,000 more students than it

did then. That’s the statistical equivalent of adding an additional UCLA

and UC Berkeley without increasing funding.

Against the backdrop of flat or declining state funds, California

undergraduate applications have continued to rise for the past 11 years.

UC officials say expanding California enrollment is a top priority and have

asked the state for additional funds to help meet student demand.

it is no longer financially sustainable to continue to add students

without additional support from the state, university officials say.

THE PERSONAL CASE FOR INVESTING IN UC

in meetings with legislators and staff members, UC’s advocates spoke of the benefits to the state of UC research, which has

made California a hub of innovation and cultural capital.

UC advances in health, agriculture, technology and other areas of the economy have produced jobs for millions of

Californians, not only those with UC degrees.

But they also talked about what their educational experiences meant in their own lives.

“Thanks to UC, i’ve been exposed to amazing opportunities, not only in engineering, but in entrepreneurship as well,”

said Janna Rodriquez, a UC Merced alumna with a degree in mechanical engineering. She is now a Ph.D. student at Stanford

University, focused on developing micro-electronic sensing devices, and also runs her own business, J&R Tacos, a successful

restaurant in downtown Merced.

“UC exposed me to a whole world i didn’t even know existed,” she said.


T

GO

VERNM

ENTRELATIO

NS

uC Day gives Students, Alumni Voices Among legislators BY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

There can be a difference between

learning and doing, but not for

members of UC Merced’s Design/

Build/Fly (DBF) team.

Members of UC Merced’s

American institute of Aeronautics

and Astronautics (AiAA) student

branch comprise the competitive

team, which built an aircraft that will

be scored on its ability to execute pre-determined missions in a national competition this year.

Mechanical engineering senior Eduardo Rojas-Flores co-founded the AiAA student branch

on campus last year so students interested in aeronautics and aerospace could collaborate on

projects and apply their theoretical knowledge in a competitive environment.

The AiAA DBF team, advised by Professor YangQuan Chen, includes Rojas-Flores and

fellow mechanical engineering majors Jose Sanchez and Salvador Uvalle as leads, along with

nine other students as contributing members.

“This is an example of how we bridge the gap between school and industry. We’ve created

something from scratch using fundamentals learned in class,” Rojas-Flores said.

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE

The team is structured like a small firm, Rojas-Flores said. As advisor, Chen has the final say

on the safety of the aircraft and offers guidance in its development. Graduate student advisors

might also offer insight. AiAA student branch members can join sub-teams and work on

aircraft components. Each sub-team has its own manager who reports to the project manager.

The team’s project manager oversees the logistics and various sub-teams that are contributing

to the project.

“Even the way the team is organized prepares us for the workforce,” Rojas-Flores said. “After

we graduate, any one of us can apply to jobs in the fields of aeronautics or aerospace with an

idea of how the industries work.”

At the national contest this spring, the team’s aircraft will need to complete three missions.

The first tests how many laps the aircraft can fly in four minutes. The second is a transport

mission, which tests how fast the aircraft can travel three laps while carrying a 5-pound

wooden block. The third requires the aircraft to drop a whiffle ball in a designated zone. in

addition to the missions, points will be awarded based on the aircraft’s design and the total

cost, with pricey models scoring lower than inexpensive ones.

“The tricky part,” Sanchez said, “is that our design had to be based around the block, because

it had to be easily loaded and unloaded without affecting the center of gravity by much.”

The students have learned a lot as they’ve spent most weekends modifying and rebuilding

their prototypes. Though there have been moments of frustration, all of the team members

agree that every obstacle reminds them of what they love about their chosen field.

“One small move in one area of the design can change everything about how the aircraft

operates,” Uvalle said. “But then again, that’s design engineering.”

Flying HigH: Design/BuilD/Fly Contest Helps unDergraDuates soar


FOCUS ON UNderGrAdUATe STUdeNTS BY TONYA kUBO | University Communications

TEAM EduArdo rojAs-FlorEs (lead) – Fallbrook

josE sAnchEz (lead) – Winton

sAlvAdor uvAllE (lead) – Mcswain

jAd Aboulhosn – pleasanton

juliAn cuEvAs – Merced

MoATAz dAhAbrA – Chowchilla

juAn hErnAndEz – san Diego

dErEk hollEnbEck – los Banos

josEph ikuTA – reedley

MichAEl lunA – sacramento

MATThEw MorAn – tulare

joEl suMMEr – Martinez

see a video about Eduardo Rojas-Flores’ journey at UC Merced.

VIDEOALERT


Studying Abroad opens Doors at home

Bridget Martinez had already studied abroad twice when she decided research would play a major

role in her future.

As an undergraduate at UC Merced, she studied in Egypt one year and worked on cancer-related

research in the laboratory of cell senescence and tumorigenesis at Yonsei University in Seoul the next.

“The week i got back from South Korea, i started knocking on professors’ doors, looking for a

lab to join,” Martinez said. “That trip changed everything. i discovered a new passion — the art of

discovery.”

now on her way to a Ph.D. in comparative physiology, the Van nuys native found what she was

looking for with Professor Rudy Ortiz. He studies diabetes, and Martinez wants to become an

endocrinologist so she can treat patients with diabetes and continue to research the disease, from lab

bench to bedside.

As one of Ortiz’s seven lab members — including three undergrads — Martinez has taken two

research trips to Kagawa, Japan, to work on studies related to the pathologies associated with insulin

resistance, collaborating with fellow lab members and colleagues in Kagawa who are professors of

pharmacology and experts in this area.

“The opportunity to participate in extramural research, especially in an international setting, is

very important because it provides perspective on students’ own research in terms of unique and

similar challenges, differences in cultures (both societal and scientific) and alternatives to address

similar research questions,” Ortiz said.

Each year, he takes students to Kagawa Medical University for 10 weeks at a time to work on

different aspects associated with insulin resistance, cardiovascular diseases and other metabolic

disorders. He’s trying to figure out how the development of insulin resistance contributes to heart,

Not traveling is

like closing your

eyes to a different

perspective and

turning your back

to a world of

possibilities.”

– BRIDGET MARTINEZ

BRIDGET MARTINEZ STUDIES ELEPHANT SEALS’ ENDOCRINE SYSTEMS TO FURTHER UNDERSTAND DIABETES IN HUMANS.

BY LORENA ANDERSONUniversity Communications


kidney and liver disorders with the hope that

a better understanding of these mechanisms

provides more effective treatment in people

with Type 2 diabetes.

Martinez said researching overseas is a great

experience because it allows students to work

in new settings with other people, different

resources and different ways of working. The

work she participated in there parallels the

work she conducts on the coast with elephant

seals. The seals naturally have higher blood

sugar than most animals, and more body fat,

while other models of diabetes are so because

of their diets, so the researchers can compare

the two and their reactions to situations like

fasting and feasting.

Studying abroad doesn’t always involve

research. There are plenty of opportunities

through the UC Education Abroad Program

(UCEAP) in which students simply take classes

and live elsewhere.

To date, UC Merced has sent about 530

students abroad, said Craig Harmelin, assistant

director of UC Merced’s study abroad office.

All UC students are eligible for UCEAP

scholarships, and financial aid travels with each

student.

Most students only go once, Harmelin

said. in fact, the odds of the average student

participating a second time is about 11 percent.

But Martinez has beaten those odds many

times over, studying astronomy in italy and

conducting molecular biology analysis on her

seal studies at Sonora University in Mexico.

She’s fluent in Arabic, italian and Spanish.

Her study and research opportunities have

benefitted her personally and academically,

and she believes they will help her when she

becomes a doctor, as well.

“Traveling helps you understand cultural

differences, which, for a doctor, forms a bridge

with many patients,” Martinez said. “it can help

you understand patients’ lifestyles and help

them overcome some of the challenges they

face in becoming healthier.”

Her research abroad will actually help

her finish graduate school, too, because

she won a $75,000 scholarship from the

Dennis R. Washington and Horatio Alger

Foundation, given to nine scholars nationwide

who demonstrate individual initiative and

commitment to excellence exemplified by such

traits as honesty, hard work and self-reliance.

“My philosophy is that every mind is its own

world,” Martinez said. “not traveling is like

closing your eyes to a different perspective and

turning your back to a world of possibilities.”

UPCOMING EVENTS ON CAMPUS

May 16 and 17: UC Merced Commencement

Oct. 17 and 18: Homecoming

dec. 1: #GivingTuesdayUCMerced

When Maricela Rangel-Garcia’s father first brought her to

UC Merced for a visit, the first words out of her mouth were,

“There’s nothing here!”

Her father, a UC Santa Cruz alumnus, touted all the reasons

why this brand-new university, part of the prestigious UC

system, was the best possible choice for his daughter.

in the end, she entered UC Merced as a pioneering

freshman in 2005.

A 2009 graduate of UC Merced with a bachelor’s in

biological sciences, Rangel-Garcia describes her experience at

UC Merced with pride.

“We — the students, faculty and staff — had a very strong

sense of being in it together to build a brand-new UC,” she

said. “The community feeling was very strong. At the risk of

sounding cheesy, it felt like we were a family.”

Rangel-Garcia’s first leadership role on campus came

with her job as the first student assistant in the Office of

Counseling and Disability Services, a position she held all four

years and one in which she was consistently promoted. She

authored the handbook that serves as a guide for counseling

and disability service employees on how to work with faculty

members and students, including a troubleshooting guide.

The work, and her employers’ faith in her, helped build her

confidence.

Rangel-Garcia and classmate Eve Delfin formed Ballet

Folklorico de UC Merced, and she also served as the chair

of the planning committee for the first Chican@/Latin@

commencement on campus, with a focus on students’ families.

“Throughout my time at UC Merced, i was empowered and

made to feel special,” she said.

But it was through her volunteer work at the Mercy Medical

Center emergency room that she became aware of the severe

health care disparities in Merced and the San Joaquin Valley.

That experience strengthened her resolve to become a

physician. She enrolled in the San Joaquin Valley Program in

Medical Education (SJV PRiME), a collaboration between the

UC Davis School of Medicine, UC Merced and UCSF Fresno

designed to remedy the uneven distribution of physicians in

California. it is a tailored clinical track at the UC Davis School

of Medicine for students who are committed to ensuring

high-quality, diverse and well-distributed medical care to

improve health for populations, communities and individuals

in the San Joaquin Valley.

Rangel-Garcia credits her experience at UC Merced,

including learning to take on multiple leadership roles as an

undergraduate student, with enhancing her application to

SJV PRiME.

now in her third year of the program, Rangel-Garcia will

select her area of medical specialty this year, deciding between

internal medicine and obstetrics and gynecology.

“Through the SJV PRiME program, i am looking forward

to achieving my dream of becoming a physician and serving

the San Joaquin Valley,” she said. “My parents instilled in

me and my siblings the importance of giving back to the

community and using our education to serve other people.”


ALUMN

ICORN

ER

Leadership Opportunities Helped Grad Move Forward into Medical School

BY LISA FRENCHDevelopment and Alumni Relations

BOBCATS GIVE BACk

on #GivingTuesdayUCMerced, 167 donors made a record 252 gifts in a 24-hour period.

Gifts from alumni and friends, along with 3:1 matching gifts from Foster Poultry Farms and Wells Fargo resulted in more than $40,000 for scholarship support, including the creation of a new Alumni Association Endowed scholarship Fund.

Thank you, Bobcats!

MARICELA RANGEL-GARCIA CREDITS HER ExPERIENCES AT UC MERCED wITH HER POST-GRADUATION SUCCESS.

Lidar, a remote sensing technology, is quickly becoming

the standard in data collection because of its speed and

accuracy. And UC Merced has a new mobile lidar unit to

use for a variety of projects.

It works by measuring distances to a target using a laser,

just like a rangefinder. By moving the laser around

and sampling several thousand points per second, lidar

has the power to yield high-resolution, three-dimensional images of objects being scanned, such as a

building or terrain, in the form of a “point cloud.”

The rising popularity of lidar and similar technology has led to smaller, more efficient, less expensive units.

Still, the unit Professor Josh Viers purchased cost about $135,000.

“We can now mount a lidar unit to a small vehicle, carry it by hand or even mount it to an unmanned aerial

vehicle,” said Jacob Flanagan, a graduate student who works with Viers. “This allows us to collect data

when it’s most crucial, without having to rely on an outside data-collection firm.”

A lidar point cloud can collect and display different types of information, like tree attributes and digital

terrain layers. Areas can be scanned and quickly digitized over time, yielding high-resolution spatial and

temporal products that are useful for conducting real scientific research and modeling.

SOME OF THE PROjECTS VIERS’ LAB IS NOw wORkING ON:

Scanning the terrain of the new Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve to better understand hydroperiod and inundation of vernal pools;

Working with The Nature Conservancy to understand the evolution of floodplain geomorphology so rivers can be managed for multiple benefits, such as groundwater recharge, riparian forest regeneration and fish habitat; and

Precisely measuring biomass in forests and agricultural settings to improve management practices.

Mobile Lidar Unit Enhances Research Projects


see lidar in action.VIDEOALERT

LIDAR PROVIDES A DIFFERENT wAY TO VIEw AND STUDY PLACES ON CAMPUS AND AROUND THE VALLEY.


Few universities are lucky enough to have a national treasure at their doorsteps.

But with Yosemite national Park situated just east of campus, UC Merced is particularly fortunate. The campus cultivates a kinship with

Yosemite through research, education and recreation projects and programs.

Those connections include the Sierra nevada Research institute (SnRi), student research and other projects, the Yosemite Leadership

Program and UC Merced Wilderness Education Program — just to name a few. All bring the park and campus much closer than the roughly

80 miles that separate them.

SnRi provides a home for researchers, faculty members and students to conduct basic and applied research on topics ranging from

climate to hydrology. Fittingly, SnRi — which works throughout the Sierra nevada and San Joaquin Valley — was the first research institute

established at UC Merced.

Director Roger Bales said sNRI draws top-notch scientists to the park and extends the university’s educational range.

“Yosemite provides a natural laboratory for the campus,” he said.

FIELD STATION SERVES MANY PURPOSES

The institute’s Yosemite Field Station in Wawona is a hub for research and the Yosemite Leadership Program for students. Field station

Director Becca Fenwick helps facilitate partnerships, collaborations and research between the university, park service and U.S. Geological

Survey (USGS).

The station is a base of operations for researchers and students, particularly in the summer. Fenwick said students broaden their thinking

and future career possibilities by participating in leadership and other programs.

“This is a unique experience that not a lot of students can have,” she said.

Students often are at the heart of Yosemite/UC Merced partnerships, such as the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program funded

through the national Science Foundation. Though open to any qualified undergraduate student, the program typically includes one or two

UC Merced students out of the eight available positions. Most mentors are UC Merced faculty members who also are associated with SnRi.

Stephen Hart, an ecology professor in the School of natural Sciences and lead investigator for the program, will co-mentor a student this

summer with UC Merced Professor Carolin Frank. Their project will estimate the rate of conversion of atmospheric nitrogen to ammonium

by bacteria in the foliage of trees and the underlying soil.

“We try to focus on areas where the national Park Service sees a need,” he said. “This is a very unique partnership that really is a jewel for

UC Merced, the park service and USGS.”

BY Cyndee Ott

Dynamic Partnerships Strongly link UC Merced, Yosemite national Park

STUDENTS wORk ON SEVERAL PROjECTS FOR PARk

Field-based research is important for students. Engineering

Professor Roland Winston, an institute faculty member, said

students learn better by applying lessons.

“There is a difference between going to a concert and playing

an instrument,” he said.

Winston is the faculty advisor for a senior

project to design a better composting toilet for use

in backcountry areas. The idea is to develop a safer

system that works more efficiently — especially

in cold weather — and reduces the volume and

weight of waste.

Sam Hopstone, a senior from Walnut Creek and

environmental science major at UC Merced, is part

of the team. He said it’s an amazing opportunity

and said the proximity to Yosemite was one reason

he chose UC Merced.

“i didn’t know until i got here how many

opportunities there were to partner with the park,”

said Hopstone, who also completed a summer

internship in Yosemite.

Steve Shackelton is a former associate director

of the national Park Service and chief ranger at Yosemite. He’s

now at UC Merced, in engineering and parks and protected area

management.

Shackelton has worked with students on projects including

the new solar composting toilet, a redesign of the park’s

propane canister recycling program, and energizing remote

radio repeaters.

UC MERCED’S PARTNERSHIP wITH YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARk OFFERS STUDENTS AND RESEARCHERS MANY OPPORTUNITIES TO LEARN.


see a video about our partnership with the national park.

The UC Merced-Yosemite partnership is a model for other agencies

and organizations toward creating a global community of practice in

protected area management, he said. Programs can help prepare students

for future stewardship challenges.

“The leadership program helps students understand they are going to

inherit the planet, and that a single person still can make a difference,”

Shackelton said.

The two-year Yosemite Leadership Program

combines classroom lessons with field-based

learning along with training in leadership skills, a

park-based summer internship, student projects

and more.

Jesse Chakrin, who works for the park service,

directs that program and the UC Merced Wilderness

Education Center, an outreach and education

program.

Partnerships that reach the next generation are

important, especially because UC Merced is the

most diverse campus in the UC system. Those

collaborations help students understand the

challenges ahead and inspire them to become good

stewards of the park, Chakrin said.

Service learning represents another connection. For example, the

Foster Family Center for Engineering Service Learning supports students

who partner with nonprofit organizations to solve real-life challenges.

Students have worked with Yosemite to digitize archival handwritten

notes and records. Chris Butler, assistant director of the center, said UC

Merced students have a unique opportunity.

“To be able to work with the national Park Service is amazing,” he said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Cyndee ott is a freelance writer with many years of experience writing about UC Merced and other topics. she regularly contributes to the university’s website with stories about students, faculty members and staff members.

VIDEOALERT

“This is a very unique

partnership that

really is a jewel for

UC Merced, the park

service and USGS.”

— PROFESSOR STEVE HART

Professor Masashi Kitazawa received $2,675,526 from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for his Alzheimer’s-related project entitled “Environmental Copper Exposure and its Impact on Microglial Abeta Clearance.”

Professor Carolin Frank received $1,623,886 from the National Science Foundation for her environmental biology project entitled “Dimensions: Taxonomic, Genetic and Functional Biodiversity of Above-Ground Bacterial Endophytes in Subalpine Conifers.”

Professor Michael Scheibner received $1,048,897 from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency for his physics project entitled “Quantum-Enhanced Motion Sensing Using Entangled Spins in Quantum Dots.”

Professor Hrant Hratchian and co-investigators Professors Jian-Qiao Sun and Suzanne Sindi received $515,842 to purchase an MRI machine to be used as a multi-environment research computer for exploration and discovery.

Professor Tao Ye received $510,000 from the National Science Foundation for his nano-biology project entitled “Directing and Probing DNA Origami Self-Assembly on Dynamic Surfaces.”

Professor Elliott Campbell received $1,045,721 from the U.S. Department of Energy for his climate-related project entitled “Scaling from Flux Towers to Ecosystem Models: Regional Constraints on Carbon Cycle Processes from AtmosphericCarbonylSulfide.”

Professor Miguel Carreira-Perpiñán received $449,999 from the National Science Foundation for his machine-learning project entitled “Algorithms for Accelerating Optimization in Deep Learning.”

Professor Qinghua Guo received $265,854 from the National Science Foundation for his geographical information project entitled “ABI Development Forest 3D — an Open-Source Platform for Lidar Application in Forestry.”

Professor Raymond Chiao received $204,991 from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for his physics projectentitled“GenerationandAmplificationofGravitationalWavesforMilitaryCommunications.”

Professor Jay Sharping received $200,000 from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for his physics projectentitled“GenerationandAmplificationofGravitationalWavesforMilitaryCommunications.”

Professor Jeffrey Gilger received $383,788 from Merced County for his child-development project entitled “Improving the Community Infrastructure for Early Developmental Screening, Assessment, Referral and Care.”

Professor Laura Hamilton received $49,995 from the Spencer Foundation for her sociology project entitled “Does Institutional Context Matter? Predicting Success for Less Privileged College Students.”

Professor Carol Sipan received $163,623 from UC Davis and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for her valleyfever-relatedprojectentitled“CoccidiodomycosisAmongCaliforniaHispanicFarmWorkers.”

Professor Jan Wallander received $90,000 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development for his health-related project entitled “A CBPR Initiative to Address Obesity Disparities for Latinos in San Joaquin Valley.”

Professor Andrea Joyce received $35,439 from the Almond Board of California for her agriculture-related project entitled“EarlyDetectionofLeaffootedPlantBugandStinkbugsinAlmondOrchards.”


FacultyFindings

sChOOL Of

naturaL

sCienCes

sChOOL Of

sOCiaL sCienCes,

huManities

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UC Merced researchers depend on grants and gifts to move forward with the many projectsandexplorationstheyconduct.Herearethetopfivegrantawardsineachofthe university’s three schools so far in Fiscal Year 2014-15.

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