UC Merced Magazine Spring 2014

INSIDE:

IMMIGRATION

Undocumented Students Finding Welcome Homes on UC Campuses

HAVING COFFEE WITH PROFESSOR FRED WOLF

and His Drunken Fruit Flies

OUR UNIVERSE

UC Merced’s Research Takes a Galactic Turn

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, MERCED

Spring 2014

Women in STEMLooking for Ways to Encourage Women to Pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Studies

18

DEPARTMENTS

8 IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | A

recap of our latest news

stories and videos

11 FACULTY FINDINGS | See

the top five research

grants from each of

our schools

12 HAVING COFFEE WITH PROFESSOR

FRED WOLF | What kind of guy gets

a fruit fly drunk?

23 GOVERMENT RELATIONS

UPDATE | Students speak

to lawmakers

29 FAST FACTS | UC Merced has a

healthy effect on the San Joaquin

Valley and beyond

30 WHAT’S NEW | Introducing the

new natural reserve at UC Merced

32 ALUMNI CORNER | Career Chats

building alumni network

14

FEATURES

CurriCulum | Professor

Christopher Viney inspires

students’ confidence

leadership perspeCtives | Provost and

Executive Vice Chancellor Tom Peterson

talks about strategic focusing and honing the

university’s academic evolution

donor spotlight | Calvin E. Bright

has made an enduring mark on

the campus

Women in stem | Women still aren’t

making up enough of the science,

technology, engineering and math students

immigration | Undocumented

students finding more support for

their higher education

sierra vieWs | Learning more about water

resources in California’s natural reservoir

our universe | Research takes a

galactic turn

FoCus on graduate students | Four

exceptional grad students earn a dean’s notice

CONTENTS

4

6

24

3

26

28

THE MAGAZINE OF THEUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, MERCED

Spring 2014

ON THE COVERMarisol Prado is a mechanical engineering student who is working on a solar-powered coffee kiosk for campus. She and many other young women at UC Merced are following their dreams of careers in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields.

SPRING 2014 | UC MERCED MAGAZINE 1

Welcome to the spring edition of UC Merced Magazine.

We’re very pleased by your enthusiasm for the fall edition, and

hope you will find just as much in this new one to capture your

attention.

There are a couple of new things we want to point out:

First, the magazine has an online version, too. If you want to

read it on your phone, tablet or computer, you can find us at

Issuu.com. If you don’t want to sign up for Issuu (it’s free), you

can simply enter UC Merced in the search window and scroll

down under publications to find our magazine. Or, let us know

if you want to be on the email list, and we’ll send you the direct

link to the magazine.

Once there, you will see the gorgeous online format. You can

flip pages, click on hyperlinks, zoom in or out and more. It really

is a great platform for the magazine, because it’s easy to use and

displays in full color. You can also follow us on Issuu, and you

will find other UC Merced publications there, too, such as the

Health Sciences Research Institute’s annual report, our latest

Research and Enterprise book and more.

You can also easily share the link with friends and family.

Second, you’ll see some new features in this issue, including

Curriculum, a spotlight on a class taught at UC Merced.

This issue has two main features – the stories on women

in science, technology, engineering and math studies and

immigration in California – and a whole lot of other interesting

content, from our research around the universe (yes, you read

that right) and the work we’re doing in the Sierra Nevada to the

latest updates on our alumni and from our administration.

Thank you for joining us on this new venture. We welcome

your feedback at [email protected].

We hope to hear from you soon!

UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

UC MERCED MAGAZINESpring 2014

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Lorena AndersonSenior Public Information RepresentativeUniversity Communications

PHOTOGRAPHY

Veronica AdroverClayton AndersonElena Zhukova

ILLUSTRATION

Julie Jamero-HadaPatricia Pratt

MAGAZINE DESIGN

Jennifer Biancucci

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 DirectorGovernmental and Community Relations

VISIT

UC Merced online.

FOLLOW

UC Merced Magazine online.

Letter from University Communications

2 SPRING 2014 | UC MERCED MAGAZINE

P r o f e s s o r ‘ s t r e t c h e s ’ c r e a t i v i t yt o I l l u s t r a t e D I f f I c u l t c o n c e p t s

Course: Polymeric materials

christoPher Viney, School of Engineering


It’s not every day you see a university professor urging students to pull

rubber bands and hold them to their lips.

But the Polymeric Materials class gives Professor Christopher Viney

– known around campus for his charismatic personality – a chance to

demonstrate fun experiments that illustrate the concepts he’s teaching.

“He encourages students to engage with the material and try to

understand it conceptually rather than memorizing information,” said

student Noel Cruz, who took the class in Fall 2013. “He advocates a

multidisciplinary approach to learning. For example, the course focuses

on polymers but we applied circuits, differential mathematics and organic

chemistry concepts in order to gain a better grasp of the material.”

Viney uses the rubber bands to demonstrate some of the

thermodynamics associated with stretching the rubber, and he pairs the

demonstration with a lecture on how you can predict the stress-strain

relationship and the deformations that result.

“It’s really physics at that point,” Viney said.

Here’s how the experiment works: After convincing the students not to

play with the rubber bands beforehand, Viney tells them to give their bands

one quick, hard tug, then hold the stretched portion to their upper lips.

“The stress makes the rubber crystallize – it essentially becomes a

different material,” he said. The crystallization releases heat, which the

students can feel on their lips.

Then, they relax the bands, and as the crystals melt, the rubber absorbs

heat from its surroundings. At that point, the bands feel noticeably cooler

when the students hold them to their lips.

“It’s one example of how you can understand things you can’t see,”

Viney said.

Viney is one of the campus’s original eight faculty members, and

has held a variety of responsibilities over the nine years since the

campus opened, including writing the original materials science and

bioengineering curricula, devising the campus’s core curriculum with

Professor Emeritus Gregg Herken and other colleagues, teaching freshman

seminars, calculus and physics, and serving as vice provost for

“It’s one example of how you can

understand things you can’t see.”

– PROFESSOR ChrIstopher VIney

on his classroom experiment with rubber bands

C u r r i C u l u m

undergraduate education for three years. He still mentors

an Engineering Service Learning team, collaborates with

colleagues and students on research, gives guest lectures

and teaches.

Cambridge educated, Viney is professionally

recognized as both a physicist and a chemist, and taught

at Oxford, Heriot-Watt University and the University of

Washington before making his home in Merced.

With all that experience, students say, Viney seems

intimidating – at first.

“He holds everyone to a high standard – a standard

that, toward the end, we all hold ourselves to as well,”

Cruz said. “But after a short while, it’s apparent that he

has his students’ best interest in mind, because he goes

out of his way to help them. In reality, he is a humble and

kind-hearted professor.”

BY LORENA ANDERSONUniversity Communications


You’re now well into your second year as provost and executive vice chancellor at the newest

university of California campus in merced. What priorities have risen to the top of your to-do

list during your tenure to date?

My top priority is to determine how best to support the academic mission of UC Merced within

the context of its rich University of California heritage and its unique status as the first American

research university of the 21st century. We have a very talented and enterprising faculty, drawn

here by the opportunity to create a model university for future scholars and leaders. That challenge

drew me here as well and inspires me to think creatively about the delivery of higher education

in a rapidly changing world. To do that effectively, we need to develop our talent, processes and

capabilities with imagination and a laser-like focus on the needs of the region, the state and society

as a whole.

Can you give an example of how you’re doing that?

The Strategic Focusing Initiative, a faculty-driven effort to define how we want our academic

programs to evolve, is the primary example of how we intend to do that. I have great admiration

for the faculty and staff members who founded this university and saw it through its formative

years. They quickly established a strong set of core programs that stimulated enrollment growth and

have already achieved a distinguished reputation in many areas of research and scholarship. Now

we’re poised to take the next step – to decide how and where to invest a portion of our resources

for greatest strategic impact and overall contribution. The Strategic Focusing Initiative will identify

areas key to the reputation and strength of the institution and help guide investment decisions more

clearly and efficiently. At the same time, we will continue to invest in disciplinary programs that are

fundamental to our core academic mission.

“the next six to nine months promise to be the most exciting

time in our development since the founding – a time to call forth

our most innovative and entrepreneurial ideas, test them and give

them a chance to take flight, and perhaps redefine the academy

for the next century.”

PROVOST AND EXECUTIVE VICE CHANCELLOR

Tom Peterson

strategic Focusing Aims to hone University’s Academic evolution


Why do you feel the time is right to pursue this initiative now?

UC Merced marks its 10th academic year this fall when we welcome the class of 2018. Enrollment at that time will be about 6,500 students,

with 10,000 expected by 2020. We believe we now have sufficient size, talent and experience to define a path forward based on our emerging

strengths and what we see as the most promising opportunities in the years ahead. We also feel we’re approaching a critical juncture in our

efforts to maintain our reputation for strong interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary work. A large portion of UC Merced’s faculty members

joined the institution because of its very early commitment to this kind of work, which is extremely difficult in traditional enterprises with

departmental silos and very little incentive to work across boundaries. I consider it part of my responsibility to preserve this differentiating

quality for UC Merced, its faculty and its students.

how will this initiative influence the university’s academic direction and research pursuits in future years?

The first round of faculty submissions from this effort produced almost 40 initiatives, many of which offered exciting and creative ideas

for combining our disciplinary strengths to address issues with multidisciplinary dimensions. We expect even more innovative approaches

will develop as faculty members study the submissions of their colleagues and new synergies emerge. This process should result in a set

of promising research trajectories we can pursue over the next eight to 10 years, creating a unique identity for this institution not only

compared with our sister institutions within the UC system, but also with other academic institutions nationally.

Significantly, we can proceed with this focusing effort in a way that’s unconstrained by traditions that often dictate direction and force one to

settle for sameness. I think UC Merced may be uniquely positioned to do something visionary and, quite possibly, even revolutionary, if we

have the courage to dare and risk a false step or two. The next six to nine months promise to be the most exciting time in our development

since the founding – a time to call forth our most innovative and entrepreneurial ideas, test them and give them a chance to take flight, and

perhaps redefine the academy for the next century.

the university of California is widely regarded as the leading public university system in the world. do you feel public institutions

such as uC merced and the faculty members who work here have a special obligation to serve the public good?

I think all universities do to an extent, but especially so for our public universities. Those of us who work in public education accept that as

we develop our professional identity through research, teaching and service, we’re here as well to serve the public interest and to enhance

quality of life for society as a whole. This is done through the rigorous pursuit of knowledge, the open discussion of ideas and the generous

gift of our time and intellect for the common good.

The unparalleled rise of the state of California as a world leader in technology, the arts, agriculture, aerospace, healthcare and so many other

fields is testament to the notion that society benefits enormously when strong public university systems spring up in their midst.

I expect UC Merced and its people will make good on that same kind of promise for generations to come.

BY TONYA KUBOUniversity Communications

hen it comes to campus

supporters, Calvin E.

Bright’s investment in

UC Merced is one that is

both long standing and strong.

A trustee since 2000 – long before any

concrete foundations were laid – the

acclaimed San JoaquinValley home builder is

part of an elite group of leaders that poured

financial support into the University of

California’s newest campus and the students

who would eventually come as pioneers.

To date, Bright and his family foundation

have given almost $2.25 million to UC

Merced, leaving an indelible mark on the

campus community.

“There is not a corner of this campus that

has not somehow been touched by Calvin’s

philanthropy,” said Charles Nies, associate

vice chancellor for Student Affairs and dean

of students.

Bright has focused his generosity in areas

that affect students.

Among his numerous gifts to the

university, the 2011 endowment of $2

million to establish the Calvin E. Bright

Success Center touches numerous lives by

providing advising and learning support to

students throughout their academic careers

at UC Merced.

The Calvin E. Bright Engineering

Scholarship Fund has supported engineering

scholars since 2008. His donations have also

helped offset the cost of commencement

ceremonies and fund the expansion of the

Joseph Edward Gallo Recreation Center.

Bright is committed to investing in the

success of UC Merced students because

he hopes to help them avoid some of the

obstacles he had to confront in his youth.

He arrived at Oklahoma State University

as a first-generation college student with

little more than the clothes on his back and

enough money to make it through a single

month.

“I knew my parents couldn’t help me; my

father told me that when he dropped me off,”

Bright recalled. “I was determined to go to

college because my mother and father always

told me I was going to go to college.”

Bright refers to that first month as the

turning point in his life.

“I bet I didn’t have $5 that I could

spend…I couldn’t find a job, and I had

bills due the following week,” he said. “I

called my father to come get me – I just

couldn’t do it.”

Instead, Bright’s father encouraged him

to stick it out. That advice paid off. Bright

found work and earned his degree – juggling

three to four jobs the whole time. In the end,

it didn’t take long for him to realize he had

received much more than a piece of paper.

“When I got my first job, the only

question I was asked was about my

education,” he said. “The man who offered

me the job didn’t ask what I studied; all

that mattered was that I had my degree. It

changed my life.”

Today, the Bright Engineering Scholarship

helps students with financial challenges

and represents the family foundation’s

commitment to maintaining the nation’s

technical competitiveness by supporting

the education of those who show scholarly

aptitude.

Jessyca Kamel, a mechanical engineering

senior from Southern California, credits

receiving the scholarship this year as being a

deal-maker for her.

“By helping to fund my education, the

Bright family has made it possible for me

to focus on my studies instead of worrying

about how I will manage to pay for

everything involved,” she said.

Kamel isn’t alone. Since its establishment,

the scholarship has benefitted about 30

engineering scholars with the potential for

success but lacking the financial resources

necessary for their educations.

Carol Bright Tougas, foundation president

and daughter of Calvin E. Bright, credits UC

Merced for providing educational access.

“We have an enormous amount of

confidence in UC Merced and its programs,”

she said. “My father has always been

passionate about helping those willing to

help themselves, and we appreciate UC

Merced’s focus on empowering its students

to reach their full potential.”

iCONiC HOmE-BuilDEr’S lEGACY iSs t U D e n t s U c c e s s


W

see a video about the positive impact the Bright Center for

success is having on UC Merced students.

Donor Spotlight

CAlVIn e. BrIght And hIs dAUghter, CArol BrIght

toUgAs.

calvin e. Bright’s generosity opens doors and minds at uc Merced

By helping to fund my education, the Bright family has made it

possible for me to focus on my studies instead of worrying about

how I will manage to pay for everything involved.

– JessyCA KAMel


Social Feedback Loop Aids Language Development

Professor Anne Warlaumont and

colleagues revealed that children’s lan-

guage skills develop better when they

have more verbal interactions with

their parents. Studying almost 14,000

hours of audio recordings helped the

researchers make the important dis-

covery that the “social feedback loop”

has a cascading effect over the course

of a child’s development, but that it

isn’t as powerful with autistic children.

The work could help fuel better, more

effective ways of communicating with

autistic children and helping their

development.

READ ThE whOLE STORy

McCloskey’s Research Earns Grant from California’s Stem Cell Push

Professor Kara McCloskey won a

highly competitive $500,000 grant

from the California Institute for Re-

generative Medicine to help her and

her students engineer cardiovascular

tissues that could someday be used to

repair damaged blood vessels or heart

tissue. The work could have far-reach-

ing consequences for heart-attack and

vascular patients. They are working to

make 3-D models of heart tissue that

can demonstrate how the stems cells

will work, and McCloskey said if that is

successful, human trials could begin in

about five years.


Campus Surpasses UC President’s water Conservation Request

Conserving resources is part of

UC Merced’s DNA. The campus

can not only meet President Janet

Napolitano’s call to cut water con-

sumption by 20 percent by 2020, it

has already exceeded that

expectation – this year. As of the

2012-13 school year, UC Merced has

reduced its per capita water use by 43

percent since 2007. Individual staff and

faculty member and student use went

from 22,564 gallons a year to 13,290.

That’s already 4,761 gallons less than

the goal of 20 percent reduction set

by Napolitano for 2020.



UC Merced had an outstanding 2013,

including record enrollment, research

expenditures and economic impact on the

San Joaquin Valley, new buildings and a

visit from new UC President Janet

Napolitano.

The campus is looking forward to many

more record-setting years to come.

By the end of last year, the campus

had pumped $1 billion into the region’s

economy since operations began, including

wages and benefits, construction contracts

and goods and services purchased.

Statewide, UC Merced’s total economic

contribution now exceeds $1.7 billion.

Researchers’ expenditures were up 9

percent over the year before, in part thanks

to grants and private donations that fund

so much of the important work performed

here, like cancer, diabetes and valley fever

research, work that helps understand

drought, climate change and water

resources, big-data analysis and the

region’s developing economy.

Take a look at some of the stories you might have missed from the past semester:

In Case You miSSED it

Speakers Bring Varied Experience to Campus’s Largest Commencement

The CEO of Enduring

Hydro LLC and former U.S.

Undersecretary for Energy

Kristina Johnson and Merced

County Superior Court

Judge Paul C. Lo will deliver

keynote addresses at

UC Merced’s ninth

commencement. More than

1,400 students are eligible

to graduate, making this the

largest graduating class in history. Two school-based

ceremonies will accommodate students and their families.

Johnson speaks to the schools of Natural Sciences and

Engineering on May 17, and Lo will address the School

of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts on May 18.


Professor Discovers how to Rein in Power of Tiny Particles

The heat generated by smartphones and other electronic

devices could be harnessed to also power them, indicates

compelling research from UC Merced physics Professor Mi-

chael Scheibner, who published his work in Nature Communi-

cations, a young bimonthly product of the prestigious journal

Nature. Using phonons, which generate heat, to power the

very devices that are creating them could mean big changes

in energy use, not only for small electronics, but for com-

panies like Google, which need massive cooling centers for

their many computers.


Research UniversitiesCreate EconomicSpillover, StudyShowsA $1 increase in university

spending generates an

89-cent increase in local

noneducation labor

income — evidence of a

measurable spillover

effect created by public

research institutions, research at UC Merced shows. Professor

Alexander Whalley and colleagues sought to clarify how

research universities contribute to regional economic

development. Using massive datasets that tracked university

spending and county economic changes from 1981 to 1996,

the researchers teased out the effect of research universities

alone – “a true apples-to-apples comparison.”



UC Merced heating up Mongolia’s harsh winterOne of the world’s oldest civilizations – with the worst air

pollution and the coldest capital city – is employing cut-

ting-edge technology from UC Merced. Professor Roland

Winston, who leads the UC Merced-based UC Solar Institute

and others developed a solar-thermal unit being tested at

Mongolia National University. The primary source of heat in

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, is burning coal, and, more recently,

chopped-up tires – both highly pollutant and unhealthy.

Departments within the Mongolian government are also

excited about the potential.



Campus Unveils Ambitious Expansion PlansUC Merced seeks a development team to finance and significantly expand the

campus’ size and capacity to enroll 10,000 students by 2020. Space is severely

limited on the campus that has 6,200 students. The campus issued a request for

qualifications for one or more development partners this spring, to design and build

about 1.5 million square feet of new teaching, research and residential facilities

adjacent to campus. The university aims to begin construction in 2015 and have

buildings by 2017.


Campus Receives Record Number of Applications for 10th Academic year

Admissions data indicates interest

in UC Merced is steadily growing, as

the number of undergraduate appli-

cations to enroll in Fall 2014 hit 17,469

this year. That’s a 1.6 percent increase

over Fall 2013. Transfer applications

remained steady with 2,205 this year

compared to 2,225 last year. The distri-

bution of undergraduate applications

by California region has remained rela-

tively constant with 28.9 percent from

Los Angeles, 21.8 percent from the

Central Valley and 25.1 percent from

the San Francisco Bay Area.


UC Merced Presents New Student Initiatives to white house

UC Merced

Chancellor Dorothy

Leland unveiled six

ambitious new

initiatives to help

college attainment

and success among underserved

students at an elite White House

education summit this winter. UC

Merced was one of about 140 Ameri-

can colleges and universities to meet

with First Lady Michelle Obama and

other education officials. Each campus

submitted a list of new programs to

help low-income and undocumented

students improve their college-going

and graduation rates. UC Merced

predominantly serves low-income

students. Sixty percent of undergrad-

uates are Pell grant recipients and 62

percent are first-generation students.


Political Science Professors Lead Field in Publications

UC Merced political science profes-

sors publish in leading journals and

with top university presses at a rate

that outpaces just about every other

elite institution, including Harvard,

Stanford, UC San Diego and Yale.

Professor Nathan Monroe evaluated

his prolific political colleagues’ publi-

cation prowess since earning his or her

Ph.D., and also found that the

university’s 10 political science faculty

members publish at the highest rate

in the top six journals and come in

second when looking only at faculty

members who have earned Ph.D.s

since 1998.


In Case You miSSED it

Despite their simple forms, jellyfish might supply answers to some complex questions.

Through the Police Mentor Program, UC Merced student mentors serve as role models for fourth-graders at two local elementary schools.

Take an in-depth look at the work that goes on at UC Merced during the annual Research Week.

One of the most innovative of its kind, UC Merced’s Cognitive Science graduate program is attracting stellar students and faculty alike.

y Professor Michael Cleary received $1.2 million from the National Institutes of Health and other agencies for his work on neural stem cells and decay networks.

y Professors Arnold Kim and Rommuel Marcia and Lecturer Yue Lei received $879,997 from the National Science Foundation for the DESCARTES program in applied math and big-data analysis.

y Professor Fabian Filipp received $761,257 from the National Cancer Institute for his research into key regulators of cancer metabolism.

y Professor Ramendra Saha received $747,000 from the National Institute of Mental Health for his work into the cellular basis for learning and memory.

y Professor Andy LiWang received $614,000 from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research for his work into the regulation of bacterial circadian rhythms.

y Professor Michael Modest received a $2.3 million grant from the National Science Foundation for his work on efficiency and heat transfer in internal-combustion engines.

y Professor Stefano Carpin received $594,198 from the National Institute of Standards and Technology for his work on grasping and simulation for the next generation of manufacturing robots.

y Professor Ming-Hsuan Yang received $473,798 from the National Science Foundation for his research into machine-learning and visual tracking.

y Professor Kara McCloskey received $388,254 from the Georgia Institute of Technology and the National Science Foundation for her work on stem cells and integrated cellular systems.

y Professor Tom Harmon received $384,573 from the National Science Foundation for his research into climate change, human adaptation and risks to sustainable freshwater ecosystems in the western hemisphere and beyond.

y Professor Rick Dale received $333,243 from the National Science Foundation and the University of Wisconsin for his research into language processing.

y Professors Thomas Hansford and Sarah Depaoli received $271,074 from the National Science Foundation for their work on legal policy.

y Professor Holley Moyes received $147,480 from the Alphawood Foundation for her research into the ancient Maya use of caves.

y Professor Paul Brown received $59,252 from the University of Otago for his work on cancer prevention and screenings.

y Dean Mark Aldenderfer received $34,535 from the California Department of Education for work on No Child Left Behind curriculum and instruction.


facultyFindingsSChOOL OF

NATURAL

SCIENCES

SChOOL OF

SOCIAL SCIENCES,

hUMANITIES

AND ARTS

SChOOL OF

ENGINEERING

Uc merced faculty members rely on grants and gifts for their work.

here’s a list of the top awards from each school this calendar year.

I love discovering things.

that’s what gets me up every day.

When you discover something at the bench,

you can actually do something real in life.

– PROFESSOR Fred WolF

Wolf’s Higher Education

1988Graduated from the

University of Michigan with

a bachelor’s in biology

1999Earned a Ph.D. in molecular

and cell biology at the

University of California,

Berkeley

1999Postdoctoral research in

behavioral genetics at the

University of California, San

Francisco

2005Worked as a research

investigator at the Ernest

Gallo Clinic and Research

Center, Emeryville

2012Became a professor at UC

Merced

B

Having Coffee with FrEd WolFBY BRENDA ORTIZUniversity Communications


iology Professor Fred Wolf is

no stranger to the appeal and

demands of academia. His father was

an engineering professor at the

University of Michigan and his family lived

next to the Ann Arbor campus.

“As a kid, the university was our playground,

and I spent a lot of time on campus,” Wolf said.

“In particular, the Natural History Museum

with its dinosaur skeletons, rocks and minerals,

and planetarium was one of my favorite stops.”

But it was the time Wolf spent outdoors that

ultimately led him to science.

“I got my love of biology from spending

summers in northern Michigan at a cottage

that my dad built on a lake,” Wolf said. “Just

being out there, you get a feel for nature and

that it is important.”

The youngest of four siblings, Wolf began

his undergraduate education at Michigan State

studying computer science. His father worked

with computers and he thought he might

follow in his footsteps.

ChAnge In dIreCtIonHe eventually transferred to the University of

Michigan, though, and realized his true passion

was biology.

“The sciences let you ask real questions

about things that are happening,” Wolf said.

“Biology, in particular, seemed like a great

mystery that could be solved in some way.”

For graduate school, Wolf applied to UC

Berkeley, MIT and UC San Francisco. He only

half-jokes that if he didn’t get into one of those,

he was ready to switch careers. It doesn’t take

long to realize he’s not the type to settle; that

drive shapes both his career and the career

advice he doles out to others.

“If you want to go to grad school, you should

know why you want to go,” he said. “If you

know beforehand what it is you want to do, you

will have more internal motivation.”

That philosophy guided him to spend five

years working as a technician before graduate

school, while he figured out what he wanted to

do and repaid his student loans. As a research

assistant in a University of Michigan Medical

School lab, he learned the power of using

genetics to study biology.

Graduate school at Berkeley further

developed his passion for science, and he

studied nervous system development in tiny

worms called C. elegans.

“I was attracted to the nervous system

because it is very complicated and it makes us

who we are,” Wolf said. “It seemed like an area

that would be really interesting to study for a

long time.”

tAKIng It to the next leVel

While worms are great, Wolf was eager

to do something more physiological.

Wolf credits his advisor, Professor Ulrike

Heberlein at UC San Francisco, for making

the study of drugs of abuse in model

organisms possible.

He studied behavior in the fruit fly

Drosophila, using his computer science

knowledge to develop tools to quantify

the flies’ movements and study various

behaviors, including their responses to

alcohol.

Why would you want to get a fruit fly

drunk?

A fruit fly’s main source of food is

rotting fruit – fermented fruit, which has

alcohol in it.

Fruit flies also have a very long

association with alcohol just like humans,

so they have had time to develop

mechanisms to deal with its toxic effects

and develop a preference for its inebriating

properties.

“There’s good evidence that there is

a connection genetically between the

behavioral responses of humans and flies,”

Wolf said. “We’re not as different from flies

as you might like to think.”

Also, you can do experiments with fruit

flies that can’t be done with humans, and

do them faster than with other model

organisms, so you can ask more open-

ended questions.

Wolf devoted six years as an associate

investigator at the Ernest Gallo Clinic and

Research Center in Emeryville, where he

identified genes in flies and humans that

are linked to alcoholism.

But after almost 20 years in the Bay Area,

he joined the UC Merced faculty in 2012.

“This is like the California dream in

a way, because you are helping to build

something in the Old West sense,” Wolf

said. “The campus is still young and there

are so many things that need to be done.”

During his early behavioral genetics

research, Wolf learned the circuitry in

the brain that is important for addiction

overlaps with the circuitry for regulating

eating. At UC Merced, Wolf and his team

are trying to understand more about the

biological reward processes of alcohol and

the motivational properties of food, using

the fruit fly model.

“We can learn a lot about what

motivation is by studying behavior

and manipulating brain circuits,” Wolf

said. “If we can get a concrete model of

what motivates a fly, we can turn that

psychological concept into a wiring

diagram of the brain, making it a biological

concept.

“It will tell us about how the cells

regulate structural changes, which is

important in what your brain is really good

at — adapting to change.”

Once addiction is better understood,

more specific drugs could be created to

reverse these processes.

Wolf ’s research could also have an effect

on how diseases like schizophrenia and

depression are treated.

For Wolf, that is enough.

“I love discovering things. That’s what

gets me up every day,” he said. “When you

discover something at the bench, you can

actually do something real in life.”


see a video about professor

Fred Wolf’s work with fruit flies

and alcohol addiction.

Getting women into science, technology, engineering

and math studies – and keeping them there through

graduation – has been difficult, but could be changing

BY JEREMY OLSON


his spring, UC Merced is

scheduled to have its first –

perhaps the state’s first – solar-

powered coffee and smoothie cart.

The merging of popular beverages

with green technology was the brainchild

of students in the campus’s chapter of

Engineers for a Sustainable World, not so

much because the coffee on campus is bad,

but because you can’t sell the concept of

sustainable technology unless you give

people living examples of how it can work to

their advantage.

“They will learn about sustainability by

seeing that solar energy will soon be the

main source of energy — that solar panels

can power blenders, charge phones and

even power a home,” said Marisol Prado,

a mechanical engineering major who is

building the Solar Kiosk.

Turns out, that’s pretty much what you

need to do if you want to create a sustainable

number of Marisol Prados as well.

The 20-year-old junior remains an oddity,

both on her own campus and throughout

U.S. colleges and universities, as a female

completing a degree in science, technology,

engineering or mathematics – a cluster of

subjects called STEM.

Women only earned 17 percent of the

bachelor’s degrees in engineering in 2009-

2010, according to the U.S. Department of

Education, while they earned 80 percent of

the teaching degrees.

ENGINEERING THE FUTURECONTINUED ON PAGE 16

ENGINEErING THE FUTUrE:

Many See Women as the Key to U.S. Reaching its Potential

ABOUT ThE AUThOR Jeremy Olson, a reporter at the Minneapolis Star Tribune, shared the local reporting Pulitzer Prize in 2013 for a series of stories on a spike in infant deaths at poorly regulated day-care homes. The series resulted in legislative action to strengthen rules. He has primar-ily covered health care and social services in his 18 years as a journalist. Olson also won a Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism when he worked for the Omaha World-Herald.


ABOUT ThE ILLUSTRATORSThe illustration for the Women in STEM story was created by Patricia Pratt and Julie Jamero-Hada.

Pratt is a native of Merced County whose work has been displayed throughout California as well as Mexico. She works for the Merced County Human Services Agency as a graphic designer and is concurrently working toward an associate’s degree in graphic design. Jamero-Hada also works at the Merced County Human Services Agency and is the mother of a UC Merced student. She earned a Desktop Design and Publishing Certificate at California State University, Stanislaus, in 2007.

MAKIng the CAse

At Merced, Prado is one of a handful of women in a mechanical

engineering class of 30 students.

To eliminate that disparity, leaders at UC Merced believe it is

going to take the promotion of STEM success stories such as Prado

as living examples that women, indeed, can thrive in the “nerdy”

disciplines long ascribed to men.

“The engineering profession, society and schools haven’t

successfully made the case to women that they are needed and

accepted, and that engineering careers can be world-changing in

ways others cannot,” UC Merced School of Engineering Dean Daniel

Hirleman said. “People think engineers sit in front of computers all

day, but it’s a contact sport – engineers are working to figure out the

mysteries of the brain through reverse engineering, to harness the

Sun’s energy and to stop terrorism.”

The problem has ceased to be one purely of equal opportunity.

Business leaders and politicians see it through the lens of innovation

– that the U.S. is holding back its growth and potential if half of

its population is discouraged from the fields of exploration and

invention.

Organizations as diverse as the Girl Scouts, Marvel Comics,

ExxonMobil and the White House have all taken action.

“If we’re going to out-innovate and out-educate the rest of the

world, we’ve got to open doors for everyone,” First Lady Michelle

Obama said in 2011. “We need all hands on deck, and that means

clearing hurdles for women and girls as they navigate careers in

science, technology, engineering and math.”

Academic research indicates many hurdles remain:

y One study by University of Texas researchers theorized that America remains stuck with “gender essentialist beliefs,” meaning that even when young women succeed in math and science, they don’t apply it toward supposedly “male” career paths.

y Yale University researchers found subtle gender bias by scientific faculty that female students were somehow less competent than equivalent males.

y Rice University sociologist Erin Cech found women gain less confidence in their math and science skills, even when they take the same courses and earn the same grades as male classmates. The doubt comes from social cues that women aren’t supposed to be strong in certain subject areas, she said, and from the everyday social pressures to fit in.

A change in attitude, experts believe, is possible if young women

receive mentors and examples proving that STEM careers not only

match their skill sets, but are possible for them to achieve.

UC Merced graduate Lindsay Bianchini was at the dentist last

summer when she ran into an old elementary school teacher

who was thrilled to learn a former student had earned a degree

in mechanical engineering and parlayed it into a project engineer

position at Preston Pipelines. The teacher urged Bianchini to return

to school to inspire some unmotivated students.

“I just have these girls,” the teacher complained. “They want to be

hairdressers…and find a rich, handsome husband to make all the

money for them.”

‘KIds need role Models’

UC Merced students and faculty believe working with area

schools and youth groups will have a turnaround benefit, because so

many of the university’s students come from the surrounding San

Joaquin Valley and are first-generation college students of immigrant

families.

Prado grew up in the Los Angeles area, where her parents own

a flower shop, and before she even started kindergarten was set to

work cleaning up the trimmings from floral decorations. Homework

was often done in the back, and her father supplemented it with long

division problems by the time Prado was in third grade.


“KIds NEEd rolE modEls aNd pEoplE

WHo bElIEvE IN THEm.”

– ENGINEERING STUDENT MArIsol prAdo

Seeing her parents’ exhaustion after work

was motivating, but Prado also was inspired

by their work ethic and their reminders that

she could achieve whatever she wanted.

“Kids need role models,” she said, “and

people who believe in them.”

With that in mind, Prado and other

students in the Society of Women Engineers

arranged a day-long STEM conference

called Expanding Your Horizons in February

for local female middle and high school

students. There’s also the annual springtime

Dinner with a Scientist event, and members

of the campus chapter of the American

Academy of University Women hold STEM

introductory sessions each winter for local

fourth- and fifth-grade girls and their

mothers or grandmothers.

Lisa Tarbell knew it wouldn’t exactly be

Disneyland, but she dragged her skeptical

daughters to those sessions – her oldest

went three years ago and her youngest this

January.

But one came back with pride at the

model bridge she built in an engineering

workshop, while the other buzzed about

how gross and yet awesome it was to dissect

a frog.

“Who knows? Maybe it just opened their

horizons,” said Tarbell, a Merced pharmacist.

“There’s nothing like seeing someone 20-30

years ahead of you and thinking, ‘wow, you

can do that?’”

A new program, DESCARTES, begun by

a group of applied math professors, rewards

students who excel in applied math and

encourages them toward big-data analysis,

and also features outreach to area schools

to encourage all younger students to look at

mathematics as a career possibility.

Merced faculty members believe part

of the problem is that students arrive on

campus with vague concepts of STEM

degrees.

Many see biology as a pathway to medical

careers – but certainly don’t conceive of the

kind of evolutionary biology work underway

at UC Merced to study antibiotic resistance

or the impact of climate change on coral

reefs.

A variety of efforts at UC Merced seek to

make that connection for students thinking

about STEM careers. School of Natural

Sciences faculty members host mixer

dinners to show undergraduate students the

opportunities for study and research that

they might not have considered.

ENGINEERING THE FUTURECONTINUED ON PAGE 22


“having someone of your race

or your gender and you see

them at the faculty rank? that

has a lasting and deep impact

on the way that students view

their career options.”

– SCHOOL OF NATURAL SCIENCES DEAN JUAn MezA


Tomas Monroy imagined himself fulfilling a childhood

dream of earning a college degree when he filled out a

financial aid application last year. It was a goal he thought he

couldn’t achieve without legal consequences for his family.

One fear hung over the Monroys as Tomas and his

parents submitted college paperwork: Would working with

the government in any way draw attention to them and lead

to the deportation of Monroy’s undocumented parents from

their home in Tulare County?

“They were worried (the government) would come get

them,” said Monroy, a UC Merced engineering student.

His experience – beginning his life outside the shadow of

immigration, despite the fear of punishment – captures the

conflicting feelings of a growing number of undocumented

students at UC Merced and around the country.

They’ve never had better opportunities to thrive in the

United States. A combination of recent state and federal

policy changes offer them more assurances that they won’t

be deported to countries they can hardly remember.

At the same time, repeated efforts to pass a

comprehensive federal immigration reform bill for the

first time since 1986 have failed in Congress. Criminal

prosecutions for immigration violations also have risen

under President Barack Obama’s administration with the

deportation of nearly 2 million undocumented residents

since he took office.

“All the dreamers are thankful for this opportunity. I don’t think any of us will waste it.”

– UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT AT UC MERCEDtoMAs Monroy

StEppiNG Out Of the ShadowS: UnDocUmenteD stUDents FinD a

WelcoMe at unIversItIesBY ADAM ASHTON

MAny Are optIMIstIC

California universities like UC Merced are home to a mixed group of

emotions and growing research on the nation’s inconsistent immigration

dynamic.

UC Merced has an expanding population of students from

undocumented families and a mix of professors who are passionate about

studying immigration in a global economy.

Many of them are hopeful that Congress soon will take up an

immigration bill to finally resolve the status of the nation’s estimated 12

million undocumented residents.

“I’m a pretty optimistic person. I’d like to think this is the next big

issue we’re going to address,” said anthropology Professor Robin Maria

DeLugan, who has studied migration in Latin America.

On campus, the efforts into immigration research show in:

y Community conversations facilitated by the university that focus on the San Joaquin Valley’s distinct role in the country’s immigration debate;

y Vocal professors who are eager to engage with the public; and

y Increasing activism from DREAM Act students who are forming clubs and speaking up to support each other

In 2001, the federal government passed the Development, Relief, and

Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act, providing conditional certain

immigrants who arrived in the United States as minors, lived in the

country continuously for at least five years before the bill’s enactment

and graduated from U.S. high schools.


California’s Legislature in 2011 passed a

state version, AB540, allowing the children

of undocumented immigrants to apply for

financial aid. This spring, the UC sponsored

a bill introduced by state Sen. Ricardo

Lara (D-Bell Gardens) that would close a

significant gap in the financial aid available

to AB540 students.

UC President Janet Napolitano asked

legislators for support on the bill. There

are an estimated 2,000 undocumented

undergraduates currently enrolled at UC

campuses, she said, and they are more likely

than other students to come from low-

income families and to be the first in their

families to attend college.

The loan program would give them the

same access to financial resources as other

students and improve their opportunities for

academic success at the university, she told

the committee.

“These students have worked hard

to achieve their dream of a university

education, and I believe we should work

as hard to ensure they have every chance

to succeed, including providing them with

access to the same resources as their campus

peers,” Napolitano said.

AB540 students can get in-state tuition

at UC and in the California State University

system, but they do not qualify for federal

loans or Pell Grants, or for most private

loans.

At UC, the resulting gap in federal aid

amounts to between $5,000 and $6,000 a

year.

Known formally as the California

Education Access Loan Program, or the

California Dream Loan Program, the

bill would establish campus-based loan

programs at both UC and CSU. As of press

time, the bill had not been voted on.

Each university system would be

responsible for originating, servicing and

collecting the loans, which would have

a common interest rate and uniform

repayment terms. Repaid loans would go

back to an institution’s pool for future loans.

InVestIng In stUdents And the FUtUre

“We invest in California students from an

early age and many of them have done what

we’ve asked them to do: Work hard, study

and pursue a higher education,” Sen. Lara

said. “If we’re serious about strengthening

our economy, then we must remove obstacles

for our future workforce when they’re close

to the graduation finish line. Continuing

to invest in our future and ensuring that

all students have access to the funding

resources they need to succeed should be a

top priority.”

UC and CSU would each be required

to contribute $1 to the loan pool for every

$3 allocated from state funds, a provision

Lara said would help guarantee institutions

administer the program responsibly and

minimize defaults. UC’s annual commitment

is estimated at $1.6 million.

Napolitano took the helm at UC last

October, and one of her first acts was to

allocate $5 million in one-time funds

to assist the university’s undocumented

students.

There are four ways a student can

be eligible for AB540 status, including

being undocumented or being a military

dependent who moved out of California

after attending most of high school here and

desiring to return to the state for college.

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE

ABOUT ThE wRITER

Adam Ashton is a professional journalist with more than 12 years’ experience

as a reporter and editor, including at the Merced Sun-Star and the Modesto

Bee. A hard-hitting reporter, Ashton has been embedded in Iraq and

Afghanistan three times, and now works for the Tacoma News-Tribune

covering military affairs at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Wash.

At the national level, the biggest recent gain for

undocumented students came in the summer of 2012 when

Obama announced a program that allowed them a sort of

temporary legal status known as “deferred action.” If they

qualify, it’s a promise they won’t be deported for minor

offenses.

“It takes away the threat of immediate deportation for a

lot of youth,” said UC Merced Professor Tanya Golash-Boza.

She grew interested in immigration in 2006, when protests

took place throughout the West urging reforms.

Since then, she has published numerous articles and two

books based on her interviews with deportees and detainees

in immigration holding facilities. Her latest is “Due Process

Denied: Detentions and Deportations in the United States.”

Golash-Boza urges immigration judges to consider

immigrants’ family connections in the states if they’re in

court for relatively minor criminal offenses. Splitting the

family, she says, causes “severe economic hardship” for the

relatives left behind.

In many cases, she argues, deportation is a

disproportionately severe punishment for someone who

might have been arrested for a traffic violation.

“The lack of due process I found to be fascinating,” she

said. “It contradicts a lot of what we hold dear.”


The University of California system on the whole said the number of

AB540 recipients has increased each year since the program’s inception

in 2001, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.

But while the system said that on average, the majority (64 percent) of

its AB540 students are documented, at UC Merced, the majority of the

AB540 students are assumed to be undocumented, according to data from

UC Merced’s Institutional Research and Decision Support.

The first group of AB540 students at UC Merced numbered 27, but

grew starting in 2010 – after the students became eligible for financial aid

– jumping to 97 in Fall 2012, and spiking to 177 in Fall 2013.

IMMIgrAtIon And the VAlley

The San Joaquin Valley traditionally has a nuanced political take on

immigration because of the region’s dependence on inexpensive farm

labor for its agricultural industries.

Its county farm bureaus, for example, typically lobby in favor of at

least some sort of guest-worker program, and Republican lawmakers

who represent the region have gone on the record in favor of a path to

citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

That’s a contrast to the national party, which tends to focus on border

protection over citizenship in immigration debates.

Republican state Sen. Anthony Cannella of Ceres backed a bill that

allowed undocumented immigrants to apply for drivers’ licenses. He

joined Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown for the bill’s signing ceremony.

The Legislature last year also passed a bill discouraging local law

enforcement agencies from jailing undocumented residents for minor

criminal offenses, aiming to stymie the kinds of deportations that

break up families.

The next steps have to come from Congress, Cannella said.

“What we’re doing in California is treating the symptoms. We’re not

treating the problem. That has to be in D.C.,” he said.

“the lack of due process I found to be fascinating. It contradicts a lot of what we hold dear.”

– IMMIGRATION RESEARCHERproFessor tAnyA golAsh-BozA

oUt oF the shAdoWs

In late 2012, DeLugan was among the

organizers of the Merced Immigration

Forum, which brought together academics

and experts to tear “down the walls of

ignorance” that prevent people from finding

common ground. She worries that people

who’ve been in the country for years but

fear deportation will live “shadow lives” that

prevent them from prospering.

“People need to be brought out of the

shadows, and if you want people in our

democracy, you can’t have people who are

living a shadow life,” DeLugan said.

She called the forum a productive day, and

said her heart ached when undocumented

workers showed up seeking legal advice.

“This wasn’t academic to them. It was real

life. They thought it was a safe haven,” she

said.

Monroy identifies with that feeling. His

parents kept a low profile as farm laborers

in tiny Terra Bella. He remembers how

devastated he felt when he learned their

undocumented status could hinder him

from going to a four-year college.

He persisted in his goals, anyway, making

a one-hour commute by bus to his high

school in Strathmore. Now, he’s less worried

about his family because of the changes in

the law, and even participates in a campus

club for students from undocumented

families.

Some of his undocumented peers,

however, grew up rejecting the idea that

they had anything to hide because of their

parents’ immigration status.

Environmental engineering student Yareli

Ramirez, 19, is one of them.

She’s the oldest of six siblings from

Turlock and the first to go to college. She

learned in middle school that California’s

AB540, signed into law the year she

came to California, allowed children of

undocumented residents to pay in-state

tuition at public universities.

“From there, I just got good grades,” she

said.

Ramirez’s parents never shied away

from her pre-college campuses. Her mom

regularly attended school board meetings.

Ramirez played varsity softball and joined

Hispanic leadership, environmental and

anti-tobacco clubs at Turlock High School.

She has the same spirit at UC Merced.

Ramirez is a campus tour guide. She also

participates in a group of students whose

parents are undocumented Californians.

They back each other up, and have dreams

of helping out their communities when they

graduate.

“That’s why I’m in college, to try to make

a difference in someone’s life,” said Ramirez,

who aspires to work on Central Valley water

issues after she graduates.

Monroy also looks forward to one day

earning a graduate degree and returning

home to Tulare County as an engineer. He

said he would not be on that path this early

in life if not for the state’s DREAM Act.

“All the dreamers are thankful for this

opportunity. I don’t think any of us will

waste it,” he said.


“that’s why I’m in college, to try to make a difference in someone’s life.”

– ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING STUDENT yArelI rAMIrez


Keeping women in STEM programs

once they start is also a key issue.

Among students entering UC Merced

as freshmen between Fall 2005 and Fall

2007, 438 females majored in STEM

areas. Less than half — 205 – graduated

in those fields. Other women graduate

but don’t finish postdoctoral or advanced

degree programs.

A key finding in national research is

that young women believe they cannot

succeed in scientific careers – particularly

in faculty positions with research

demands – and also have families.

“There are way too many women who

drop off,” said Professor Asmeret Asefaw

Berhe, who earned grants and fellowships

to keep her postdoctoral work afloat

while following her husband’s career as

a research scientist to UC Berkley. Now

they are both professors at UC Merced.

“It has to do with family one way or

another.”

The National Science Foundation

found this problem so prevalent that in

2011 it created the Career-Life Balance

Initiative, allowing researchers to suspend

grants for up to a year for family leave,

and also funding technicians to keep labs

running during leaves. The University

of California system similarly launched

the Faculty Family Friendly Initiative to

encourage STEM academic deans to be

flexible with promising faculty members

who are starting families.

In this area, the relative youth of UC

Merced and its faculty might provide

an advantage, because many professors

have children and cover for one another

when colleagues need to go to school

conferences or pick up kids from day

care.

Molecular and cell biology Professor

Jennifer Manilay recalled how comforting

it was when she was driven to campus

for her job interview by a senior faculty

member who had a car seat in the back.

That campus culture makes it easier

for junior professors to ask, for example,

for a pause in their tenure clocks to

attend to family matters, School of

Natural Sciences Dean Juan Meza said.

And that flexibility provides Merced

with a wealth of young role models,

including female faculty members, who

demonstrate that a work-life balance in

science is possible.

“You cannot overemphasize the

importance of role models,” he said.

“Having someone of your race or your

gender and you see them at the faculty

rank? That has a lasting and deep impact

on the way that students view their career

options.”

Prado isn’t looking beyond graduation

just yet. It’s hard to look that far ahead

with her studies, projects such as the

solar kiosk, undergraduate research on

how to make graphene stronger, and a

few shifts in her parents’ flower shop in

her immediate future.

But she wants to continue to be a role

model for other young women. That

much became clear after the conference

she helped host and the enthusiastic

response from the middle school girls

about STEM.

“We need someone to show us we can

do it,” the girls told her. “I fell in love with

that.”

“IF WE’rE GoING To oUT-INNovaTE aNd

oUT-EdUCaTE THE rEsT oF THE World,

WE’vE GoT To opEN doors For EvEryoNE.”

– FIRST LADY MIChelle oBAMA

ENGINEErING THE FUTUrECONTINUED FROM PAGE 17


UC Merced students this spring got the chance to

show legislators the value of graduate research by sharing

examples of the vital work they do.

The University of California sent a delegation to

Sacramento, including two students from each campus, UC

President Janet Napolitano and UC Berkeley cell biology

Professor Randy Schekman, the UC’s most recent Nobel

laureate.

Acting Dean of the Graduate Division Chris Kello and

graduate students Roberto Corona in health psychology

and Chelsea Arnold in environmental soil physics

represented UC Merced.

Corona studies quality of life with cancer survivors. One

of his projects looked at the emotional and physical issues

faced by men with prostate cancer. Another is looking at

cultural factors putting Latinos at risk for developing lung

cancer from smoking.

Arnold’s research is particularly timely: She focuses on

long-term consequences from drought.

Arnold studies a water resource often overlooked:

19,000-foot-elevation meadows in the Sierra Nevada. These

wetlands serve as natural reservoirs, soaking up snowmelt

and releasing it slowly into rivers and streams. But that

natural system is under threat. Unusually wet or dry years

— such as the one we’re in now — permanently shrink the

soil, an effect Arnold likened to turning a grape to a raisin.

The UC Merced delegation met with representatives

from eight legislative offices during the day-long advocacy

event, sharing their research and explaining the effects it is

having in the San Joaquin Valley and beyond.

As California’s only public research university, UC’s

graduate programs stand apart in California and in the

nation. UC’s 10 campuses educate 26,000 doctoral students

annually — more than any other university system in the

country — and bestow 8 percent of the nation’s Ph.Ds.

The students generate billions of dollars in research

funding through federal grants and other sources. They

are also wellsprings of new ideas, and perform much of

the legwork that research breakthroughs rely upon. One of

the hallmarks of UC graduate research is the wide degree

of autonomy and ownership that students have over their

work.

The result: Graduate students are responsible for an

unusually large number of start-ups and inventions, and

their names appear frequently on published research.

But UC graduate programs are under increasing pressure

because of uncertain federal funding.

The UC is in danger of losing talented graduate students

to institutions with big endowments, and that’s bad for the

UC and for the state as a whole, Napolitano told legislators.

UC MerCed In d.C.Sacramento isn’t the only place UC Merced has visited –

and advocated – recently.

The Office of Research, the Office of Governmental and

Community Relations and the Office of Alumni Relations

organized a trip to Washington, D.C., for seven faculty

members in February so they could meet program officers

in federal agencies to talk about their research and explore

opportunities for funding and partnerships.

Faculty members attending included political science

Professor Courtenay Conrad; applied math Professor

Suzanne Sindi; mechanical engineering Professor Sachin

Goyal; psychology Professor Jeff Gilger; organic chemistry

Professor Jason Hein; Director of UC Solar Research

Institute and engineering Professor Roland Winston; and

engineering Professor Valerie Leppert.

Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Tom Peterson and

Vice Chancellor for Research and Economic Development

Sam Traina, as well as staff members from Research

Development Services and Governmental Relations

joined the faculty members as they met with officers from

the National Institutes of Health, the National Science

Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S.

Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of

Education.

UC Merced faculty members also met some of their

local representatives, including Congressman Jim Costa

(D-16th District) and staff members from the office of

Congressman Jerry McNerney (D-9th District) to discuss

the importance of federal funding to their research.

Students Share Their Work With Legislators

GO

VE

RN

ME

NTRELA

TION

S


Water cycles between the land and the atmosphere. It’s one of Earth’s original renewable

resources.

But it’s not a stable resource in this changing environment.

That’s why scientists from UC Merced use the area from the tops of the Sierra Nevada out to the

coast – above and below ground – as their laboratories. They are working to improve predictions

about what humans, animals and plants really face with climate change, especially as the region

confronts a future with multi-year droughts.

It’s also why, they say, the state needs a healthy discussion of current and future challenges,

and updated information systems, policies and laws in place to deal with what’s to come.“Going

forward, providing water security means balancing investments in infrastructure, institutions and

information,” said engineering Professor Roger Bales, a member of the Sierra Nevada Research

Institute (SNRI) who, with colleagues, runs the Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory (CZO)

near Shaver Lake. “Information is one of the most cost-effective and promising ways we have to

make our water system more adaptable.”

gAtherIng dAtA

In the Southern Sierra CZO, for example, researchers use dozens of instruments and hundreds

of sensors to track precipitation, snow, soil moisture and water use by trees.

New wireless technologies link sensor networks and track how much water is in the snow, and

the rate that it melts into the soil – data used to refine models and provide accurate information.

Gas sensors track the forest as it breathes, too. As the trees photosynthesize, carbon dioxide and

water are exchanged between vegetation and atmosphere.

Despite dry conditions, trees at mid-elevations continue growing all summer long.

They might rely on water deep in the soil or bedrock, but after multiple consecutive dry years,

that reservoir could be depleted.

That bodes trouble for those trees this year, but researchers must also look at the changes in the

coming decades.

With warmer temperatures, trees will need more water to cope with increasing evaporative

demand. Growth in higher-elevation forests will start earlier and end later, meaning those trees

will also have higher annual water demands.

“Trees play a dual role in the Sierra Nevada,” said SNRI Interim Director Martha Conklin, an

engineering professor at UC Merced. “At intermediate densities, they shade snowpacks, allowing

BY ERIN STACYSouthern Sierra Critical

Zone Observatory

“If California cannot

be a world leader

in this, who can?”

– PROFESSOR MArthA ConKlIn

proFessor roger BAles stUdIes the snoWpACK In the sIerrA neVAdA.

SIERRA VIEWS:


longer seasonal storage of snow, and when

densities are high, they can return much of

the precipitation to the atmosphere, resulting

in low streamflow amounts.”

ModelIng And predICtIons

But sensor networks are only a small part

of the arsenal of tools researchers use.

They also look at historical and pre-

historical climate records to develop and

check complex models for the future.

Turns out, it’s not difficult to look back,

but it’s much more challenging to predict the

future, because there isn’t really a historical

analogy for what we face today.

“People are comfortable with the way

things are now – we know where to plant

crops, where to get water,” said Professor

Jessica Blois, a paleoecologist and SNRI

affiliate. “We want to know how to respond

to the changes that are happening, but if the

future is highly novel, then it’s also hard to

predict.”

Here’s what we know: The state’s Drought

Briefing indicated that as of mid-March,

weather stations across the state had

measured only about 50 percent of normal

precipitation. Major reservoirs stood at 22

percent to 53 percent of capacity.

Groundwater reserves are being overdrawn

to compensate for reduced surface flows. In

turn, overpumping leads to ground-level

subsidence and permanent loss of subsurface

storage capacity.

The governor declared an official

drought, and though there has been some

precipitation since, the state is still in trouble.

California’s climate has been extreme

in recent memory. It has seen some of the

wettest years — such as 2011, and some of

the driest, including 2012 and 2013 — on

record.

The National Weather Service gives us

a 50 percent chance of developing El Niño

conditions this summer or fall – which

would increase the chances of, but by no

means guarantee, a wetter winter next year.

That unpredictability is why California

needs flexible institutions and policies

that can adapt to the declining snowpack,

multiyear shifts in storm pathways and

highly variable precipitation, researchers say.

CAlIFornIA CAn leAd

Historically, state resource managers have

allocated water based on a relatively benign

climate period, but groundwater is now

being depleted.

The state’s population grew by more than

a factor of 10 between 1920 and 2010, from

3.43 million to 37.25 million people. There

are more agricultural operations to supply

and higher residential demands. More water

is pumped to large population centers along

the coast.

The state’s water management institutions

and infrastructure need a balance of

local and statewide planning, Bales and

others say. Groundwater pumping, more

storage (including groundwater recharge)

and intensive water metering can be

started locally, and a statewide, unified

water-monitoring system would give

resource managers the best, most accurate

information.

Water shortages are a worldwide problem,

and California has been a world leader in

many environmental solutions.

“If California cannot be a world leader in

this, who can?” Conklin said.

lAKes AroUnd the stAte shoW the eFFeCts oF the droUght In theIr drAMAtICAlly loWered shorelInes.

U C M e r C e d tA K e s o n T H E F I N A L F R O N T I E R

UC Merced’s research regularly expands the

boundaries of human knowledge, but it’s also

exploring the final frontier — space.

From building molecules found on asteroids

to probing meteorites, UC Merced faculty

members are contributing answers to some

of the longest-lasting questions of human

existence.

How did life begin? Are we alone in the

universe? What is our future?

The research, which includes faculty

members in geobiology, physics, chemistry

and astronomy, is an example of how today’s

questions need contributions from experts in a

variety of disciplines.

“UC Merced’s research addresses some of

the most fundamental questions we know of,”

School of Natural Sciences Dean Juan Meza

said. “Whether it’s exploring the depths of

our galaxy, seeking life outside our world or

inventing new methods for communication,

faculty members are hard at work every day

solving important problems.”

proBIng MArs

When NASA launched the Curiosity rover

and Mars Space Laboratory in 2011 from Cape

Canaveral, UC Merced geochemist Marilyn

Fogel knew about the environment it’d be

probing.

The world-renowned researcher spent

August 2007, 2008 and 2010 in Svalbard,

Norway, testing two instruments that are

included on the rover. One investigates the

planet’s chemistry and another determines

mineral structure. The remote region of

Norway, with freezing temperatures and a

barren landscape, resembles the red planet.

Fogel’s involvement with space doesn’t begin

— or end — with the Mars mission.

As a graduate student, she was funded by a

NASA grant, creating a research branch that

continues to this day. Fogel’s expertise is in

studying the raw materials for life — hydrogen,

oxygen, carbon and nitrogen isotopes — and

has led to collaborations that go beyond Earth’s

landscape.

“From the astrobiology aspect, we want to

know ‘Are we alone in the universe?’” Fogel

said. “Where are the places in our solar system

where one should go — Mars, Enceladus and

Europa — to have a chance of finding life?”

She’s been part of research teams that

analyzed Martian meteorites, which gave the

world a better understanding of what’s on Mars

today and what was there 4 billion years ago.

“Studying actual samples that have arrived

on Earth directly from Mars allows us to

examine them with the most sophisticated

technology we have, and is an important aspect

of astrobiology,” Fogel said. “Researching

early Mars may give us important clues to

understanding what happened on the early

Earth. One of the biggest questions that

humans on Earth have always wondered about

is how and when life originated right on our

own planet.”

One study, published last year in Science,

focused on a highly unusual 2-billion-

year-old Martian meteorite found in the

OUR UnIVerse“researching early Mars

may give us important

clues to understanding

what happened on the

early earth. one of the

biggest questions that

humans on earth have

always wondered about

is how and when life

originated right on

our own planet.”

– PROFESSOR MArIlyn Fogel

BY SCOTT HERNANDEZ-JASONUniversity Communications



Sahara. The black rock offered a glimpse

into Mars’ past geological history. The

researchers found it contains more water

than previous meteorites as well as traces of

carbon, suggesting there had been reserves

of important elements that could have

supported life on the planet.

An earlier study, published in Science in

2012, also found evidence of organic matter

— carbon compounds — in 10 of the 11

Martian meteorites analyzed. The findings

help support scientists working with the

Mars Science Laboratory roving the Martian

surface, and give them ideas about where to

look for signs of life.

Fogel, who joined campus last year,

recently set up her stable isotope lab in the

Castle Research building in Atwater, and

plans to continue her research beyond the

stratosphere.

reCreAtIng spACe MoleCUles

Carbon, oxygen and nitrogen molecules

are combining and reacting in outer space,

though researchers still don’t have a clear

understanding of the chemistry at work.

UC Merced Professor Jason Hein is

helping solve the mystery.

For NASA, his lab is building samples of

organic compounds researchers see in

meteor fragments. The compounds are

fingerprints left by chemical reactions

happening in space, Hein said, giving

researchers a way to work backward.

Carbon, oxygen and nitrogen are similar

to LEGO pieces — they can be arranged in

many different ways. Hein’s job is to make

variations for NASA researchers. The lab is

under contract to make 28 compounds, and

might be extended.

Hein’s lab is also refining technology to

detect trace amounts of organic matter in

space rocks, a system that could be used on

the next Mars rover mission. The test must

be extremely sensitive — the particular

carbon compounds are only found in the

parts-per-billion to -trillion range.

The rover’s current test is extremely

aggressive — scientists only can take four

samples before the instruments won’t work

anymore, he said.

“You only get four data points to answer

the question, ‘What organic material is Mars

made up of?’” Hein said. “Our ability to

tweak the chemistry and help the analytical

people is giving them the ability to see things

they never could.”

Hein hopes his technology can

increase the number of tests per mission,

potentially giving researchers dozens more

opportunities to probe the planet.

stellAr CoMMUnICAtIon

Besides sending down space rocks, the

solar system’s planets give off gravitational

radiation — something two professors

are trying to harness to develop a next-

generation communication system.

Professors Raymond Chiao and Jay

Sharping proved through a theoretical

analysis that they can make measurable

amounts of gravitational radiation (GR) in

a laboratory. GR is a wave energy only given

off by large, rotating astronomical bodies

like planets and stars.

“This project’s goal is to demonstrate that

small-scale GR systems can be useful for

communications,” Sharping said. “The key to

doing so is to find new connections between

quantum mechanics and Albert Einstein’s

Theory of General Relativity, which is not

based on quantum mechanics.”

The next step is for them to generate it in

a lab and, ultimately, to create a

communications system using GR — which

would be cheaper, easier and done on a

whole new carrier wave than the one now

used for cell phones, television and other

electronics.

the QUestIon oF lIFe

Professor Emeritus Willem Van Breugel

is convinced there’s life out there. There

are about 17 billion Earth-like planets in

the Milky Way, and he believes science will

eventually show millions of them to have

sun-like stars at the right distance.

“Creating life is not that hard,” he said.

“The material that life is made of — you

and I and the animals and the plants — are

all the same kind of chemical elements, and

sources of energy are plentiful. The only

question is ‘How stable is the climate over

billions of years?’ If that’s the case, life can

start, evolve and become just like this.”

Van Breugel, who has retired from

research, said he was lucky to be at top

institutions where he had access to cutting-

edge equipment. With the help of the Keck

Observatory, he led a research team that in

1999 found what remains the most distant

radio galaxy, z = 5.19.

He spends his time teaching “The World

at Home,” an interdisciplinary general

education course that is taken by all UC

Merced students, as well as courses in

astronomy and astrobiology.

Of course, if there’s life, it’s also

unknowable. The nearest star is three light

years away. Under the best circumstances, it

would take humans 600 to 1,000 years to get

there, he said.

“It’s a philosophical point — humanity

has found its limits,” Van Breugel said. “We

have to say, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of stuff out

there and we’ll never shake hands with them.’

Now, we have to live within our means and

be careful with our energy resources.”

FroM FAr leFt to rIght: proFessor MArIlyn Fogel And stUdents, proFessors rAyMond ChIAo And JAy shArpIng, proFessor JAson heIn And A

CheMIstry stUdent, proFessor WIlleM VAn BreUgel

FirSt to Win Dean’S FelloWShip


Four outstanding graduate students from the

School of Natural Sciences became the first to

win Dean Juan Meza’s Distinguished Scholars

fellowships this spring.

Each of the four won tuition and enough

money to cover expenses for a semester so

they could focus on their research, collaborate

with other students and their faculty mentors,

and attend and present at conferences without

the added pressure of working as teaching

assistants. They are:

derya sahin, an applied math student from Istanbul;

shelley rohde, an applied math student from Arcata;

gary abel, a chemistry and chemical biology student from Fremont; and

Jose amaral, a physics student from the Fresno area

Each of the four graduate groups in the

School of Natural Sciences had the opportunity

to nominate students for the fellowships, but

the nominees still had to apply for the nearly

$17,000 in funding.

“It’s really exciting to receive this,” Abel said.

“It was pretty competitive.”

A pAssIon For edUCAtIonRohde, who works with Professor Arnold

Kim, expects to graduate this year, so the fellowship gives her the time to make that final push toward finishing her dissertation. She’s hoping to become a faculty member in the U.S. or overseas when she is done.

Her research involves detecting early-stage cancer cells using a mathematical formula that shows how light propagates among the cells.

But what she really loves is teaching.“It’s my passion,” Rohde said. “I’d love to

go overseas, although I’d also like to stay in California and give back to the state where I got my education.”

Sahin, who works with Professor Boaz Ilan, is also in her final year and is also working on her dissertation. Her research focuses on solving challenges presented by solar collection and radiation, and helping come up with the optimal designs for solar-energy concentrators.

She hopes for a post-doctoral position when she’s finished, with the goal of becoming a faculty member at a university, too.

“This fellowship was a really nice surprise,” she said.

looKIng At MoleCUlesAbel works with Professor Tao Ye on

problems of DNA-based self-assembly – looking at how molecules assemble and how to make DNA-based synthetic materials such as medicine-delivery devices that go inside a human body.

He is about halfway finished with his Ph.D. program, and said he’s glad to have the fellowship because it allows him to make “lots of progress” on his projects.

Abel also wants to teach someday, but said his main concentration is on research.

Amaral is in his third year of graduate school and anticipates finishing in 2016. He built a microscope that “will be helpful with the soft-matter studies UC Merced is famous for.”

His work involves nanomagnetism, but he has got several projects going with other grad students and his faculty mentors Professors Sayantani Ghosh and Michael Scheibner, including using liquid crystals to optimize various systems, such as sensors, energy concentrators and data storage, and for biomedical applications.

natural ScienceS ph.D. StuDentS

“(teaching is) my

passion. I’d love to go

overseas, although I’d

also like to stay in

California and give back

to the state where I got

my education.”

– shelley rohde

DERyA SAhIN GARy ABELShELLEy ROhDE JOSE AMARAL

fOCuS ON GrADuAtE StuDENtS BY lorenA AndersonUniversity Communications

ECONOMIC IMPACT

$997 million in the

San Joaquin Valley

$2.07 billion statewide

SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY EXPENDITURES $997 MILLION

STATE GOODS AND SERVICES PURCHASED $218 MILLION

STATE CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS AWARDED $858 MILLION

TOTAL STATE EXPENDITURES TO DATE $2.07 BILLION

IMPACTING THE REGION AND BEYOND

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, the value of wages and benefits, construction

contracts and goods and services purchased by UC Merced is nearly $1 billion (as of December 2013).

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.

Statewide, the campus’s contribution exceeds $2 billion.

STATE ECONOMIC IMPACT

CURRENT NUMBER OF STAFF AND FACULTY MEMBERS AND STUDENT EMPLOYEES

2,730

PAYROLL (SINCE JULY 2000)

$691 million

MERCED


INTRODUCING The Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve

In January, the UC Board of Regents officially approved the Merced Vernal Pools and Grassland Reserve, 6,500 acres adjacent to campus and home to one of the largest contiguous vernal pools complexes left in the state. It is home to ancient soils up to 3 million years old, about six endangered species and an array of native plants.


VernAl pools AppeAr AFter the rAIns CoMe.

desert hAres, FInChes, BroWn groUnd

sQUIrrels, BUtterFlIes, ClIFF sWAlloWs

And horned lArKs Are JUst soMe oF the

WIldlIFe FoUnd on the reserVe.

The land became the 39th member of the UC Natural Reserve System, adding to the more than 750,000 acres already being conserved and studied. UC Merced’s reserve is the first one in the San Joaquin Valley, and the first one in the heart of the greater Central Valley.

Plans are developing to host researchers from around the state, country and world, as well as the general public. In the meantime, if you want to know more about the reserve, follow Manager Chris Swarth’s blog and check out the videos and other features on the reserve’s website.


NEW CAREER CHATS Enhance Alumni-Student Network


RESEARCH IN FOCUSThe fourth Chat was featured as part of UC

Merced’s Research Week and focused on helping

undergraduate students take advantage of

research opportunities on campus. Five alumni

participated on the panel: Kristina allen (2012),

a Ph.D. candidate in developmental psychology

at UC Merced; Josh Franco (2009), a Ph.D.

candidate in political science at UC Merced;

W. Kyle hamilton (2012), a lab assistant at UC

Merced’s School of Natural Sciences; and rachel

hatano (2012) and lian Wong (2013), both

graduate students in Bioengineering and Small-

scale Technologies at UC Merced.

The final Chat was held in collaboration with

the Women’s Empowerment Conference hosted by

the Women’s Programs at UC Merced. Featuring

four alumnae with diverse backgrounds and

post-UC Merced experiences, the panel members

wowed the audience with their candor, positivity

and wealth of experiences.

The four panelists included eve delfin (2006),

one of UC Merced’s first three graduates; liz

Kang (2009), UC Merced’s San Francisco Bay-

Area Alumni chapter leader; preet sandhu (2010),

a Livingston native who now runs a small business

in Merced; and Jackie shay (2009), a mycology

graduate student who served in the Peace Corps in

Morocco after graduating from UC Merced.

A common question asked of panelists was

“Did alumni do this for you when you were a

student?”

Of course, the panelists were quick to let the

students know that when they were students, there

weren’t any UC Merced alumni.

But what’s important is that UC Merced’s

proud and dedicated founding alumni are coming

back now, sharing their knowledge with our

current students and helping them see the roles

they, too, can play in future students’ lives

CONTACTTo learn more about the Alumni Career Chats

or the Student Alumni Association, visit

alumni.ucmerced.edu/saa.

C Merced’s alumni are building the UC Merced alumni network

from the ground up, one chat at a time.

You don’t have to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company to return to

your alma mater and give career advice to students. In fact, the unique experience

of a UC Merced education unites alumni with current students in a way that

makes them relatable and inspiring, through a new program by the Alumni

Relations Office called Alumni Career Chats.

Launched in September, five Chats have been hosted at UC Merced, each

addressing a topic of professional development for today’s students. The five

sessions individually addressed law, health sciences, psychology, research and

leadership. In the Chats, alumni discussed their chosen career fields and shared

information about what they wish they had known, what they’ve learned and what

students should do to prepare themselves for entering the workforce.

In developing the Alumni Career Chat series, the Alumni Relations Office

worked with the Center for Career and Professional Advancement to determine

what career areas students have shown an interested in pursuing.

The first Chat focused on the field of law and featured four panelists: J. ryan

Cogdill (2007), an associate attorney at the Curtis Legal Group; matthew Creeger

(2007), an attorney at the Merced County District Attorney’s Office; lucia perez

loera (2011), a first-year law student at the University of San Francisco; and sonia

salazar (2008), a staff attorney with Los Angeles Dependency Lawyers, Inc.

More than 70 students attended that session, and the standing-room-only

audience was captivated by the alumni experiences.

POPULAR SESSIONS, POPULAR PANELSThe second Chat focused on health sciences and also featured four biological

sciences alumni panelists: serena lai (2012), a clinical research coordinator for

the Kidney Transplant Department at the California Pacific Medical Center; isidro

ramirez (2012), a department coordinator for Cardiothoracic Surgery with the

Palo Alto Medical Foundation; maricela rangel-garcia (2009), a second-year

medical student; and randell rueda (2011), a third-year medical student.

The third session focused on psychology, profiling four alumni who have

gone in very different directions with their degrees: elizabeth grosch (2013),

a project analyst in quantitative insights for Added Value; Yonatan mulugeta

(2012), a dental/homeless program assistant with Golden Valley Health Centers,

a Community HealthCorps AmeriCorps member and master’s candidate in

healthcare administration at Grand Canyon University; Kristyn sackett (2012), a

West Coast Region recruiting assistant and data inputter for Across the Pond; and

Jacqueline Yanez (2010), a social worker practitioner for Fresno County Child

Welfare Services.

More than 100 students attended this session – again resulting in a standing-

room-only audience.

It’s clear our students want to hear what alumni have to share.

U

BY HEATHER WILENSKYAlumni Relations

ALU

MN

ICO

RNER

University Communications5200 N. Lake RoadMerced, CA 95343

NON PROFITUS POSTAGE PAIDPERMIT NO. 2194FRESNO, CA

PRINTED ON RECYCLED PAPERMay 2014 | 19,400

SPRING AT UC MERCED

Documents

UC Merced Magazine Spring 2014