Kenneth Mashinchi

As the only institution in the country with all LEED certified buildings, being sustainable is ingrained in UC Merced’s DNA. Now, a new competition is challenging the university to strive for carbon neutrality through a UC system-based initiative.

During the month of April, all 10 UC campuses will go head-to-head in the Cool Campus Challenge, a contest to see which UC location can do the most to reduce its carbon footprint and spread the word about the importance of becoming carbon neutral.

Representatives from UC Merced have joined President Janet Napolitano’s newly formed Chicano/Latino Advisory Council for the University of California.

The Center for Cellular and Biomolecular Machines (CCBM) was recently highlighted in a video at the Biophysical Society (BPS) Annual Meeting in Baltimore. The conference brings together more than 6,000 attendees from all over the world.

The explorer mentality, public health Professor Stephen Wooding said, is what sets the students of UC Merced apart from anywhere else. A willingness to try something new, to go somewhere they’d never thought possible, is a part of the Bobcat DNA.

For three students, the time they spent traveling up and down the Amazon River over winter break fully embodies this desire to explore.

You can smell them a mile away; there’s no mistaking the smell of cows and their methane emissions.

The odor, of course, comes from tons of methane-spewing manure. Thanks to a multimillion-dollar grant from the California Strategic Growth Council’s competitive Climate Change Research Program, Professor Gerardo Diaz and his interdisciplinary team of UC Merced faculty will look to subdue that stench while also caring for the planet.

When pondering faith and redemption, the concept of “making good” on the past can be a crucial step in moving forward.

Professor Edward Orozco Flores’s new book, “Jesus Saved an Ex-Con: Political Activism and Redemption After Incarceration” explores how formerly incarcerated individuals organize to change their communities with a goal of “making good.”

Professor ShiPu Wang has been named the Coats Family Chair in the Arts. Wang plans to use funding from the endowment to not only supplement his research, but also to provide a broader experience and education in the arts.

Michael Pierick’s road to presenting as part of the UC Merced delegation at this week’s UC Board of Regents meeting started in 2012, with a pit stop on the way to a basketball tryout at Sonoma State.

Both of Pierick’s parents attended UCLA and encouraged him to check out the newest UC campus while driving to Sonoma from San Diego, where Pierick was finishing his senior year at Rancho Bernardo High School.

“When I got to campus, it was just this close-knit community,” Pierick said. “I could really be the person I wanted to be.”

UC Merced psychology Professor Anna Song and biology Professor Jennifer Manilay had a special dinner with UC President Janet Napolitano at her Oakland home recently to honor the faculty members for their work on first-generation student initiatives.