Skip to content

Faculty

Graduate Student Discussion Group

HSRI is proud to announce the inaugural 2020 Graduate Student Discussion Group: Race, Research and Academia. 
Our graduate student members share a common interest in health-related research, which has both a broad interpretation and implications across fields. By examining the role racism plays in physical health, the lived environment, policy and academia, we hope students will gain research-based perspectives on equity which can be applied throughout their careers.

All graduate students and postdocs are eligible to participate, but only members will be eligible to receive a copy of our participation incentive item.
Tell us a little bit more about what you hope to get out of this series. What motivated you to register?
How comfortable are you discussing issues of race, racial justice and equity?
I am interested in the following monthly discussions. Zoom info will be sent upon registration. Spring 2021 topics to be finalized soon.
Suggestions for speakers, articles, or topics to discuss? This is a new initiative and we want to hear from you!

$3.5 Million Hellman Endowment Expands Future of Research at UC Merced

Since 2011, the Hellman Fellows Fund has provided close to 60 UC Merced assistant professors with much-needed research support in the form of seed funding. The prestigious Hellman Fellowship has launched countless careers at UC Merced and across the UC system.

Now, thanks to a generous new $3.5 million gift from the Hellman family, UC Merced will permanently establish the UC Merced Society of Hellman Fellows starting in 2021. The endowment allows the program to continue in perpetuity, while affording the campus more flexibility in funding early-career research.

New Project Aims to Advance Understanding of Immune Cells as they Develop

Maybe now more than ever, scientists need to understand the immune system.

A new National Institutes of Health grant is funding a cross-disciplinary collaboration between bioengineering Professor Joel Spencer and immunology Professor Jennifer Manilay that will allow them to watch as immune-system cells develop in the bone marrow of a living mouse to gain insights into how they work.

Bacteria Use the Physics of Twist to Measure Their Own Size and Shape

Theoretical physics Professor Ajay Gopinathan has been working over the past decade to model a submicroscopic mystery. Now, he and a team of colleagues have verified an important piece of the puzzle of how tiny, intrinsically twisted protein filaments responsible for repairing and growing cells know where to go to perform their function.

The work could someday enable scientists to control bacterial growth.

Human Waste Treatment Helps Solve Climate-Change Puzzle, New Study Shows

About 4.5 billion people around the globe do not have access to adequate sanitation, and what they do have — typically pit latrines and lagoons — are responsible for widespread illnesses and a portion of the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet.

UC Merced Professor Rebecca Ryals and a group of colleagues have a solution that not only increases safety, sustainability and jobs, but reduces greenhouse gas emissions and waste-borne illnesses while producing an effective fertilizer for agriculture.

Pages