Sunday 19 May 2024
Anthropology and Heritage Studies
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Holley Moyes (she, her, hers) is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Heritage Studies. She is an archaeologist specializing in the Archeology of Religion who studies cross cultural ritual cave use. Her field research is conducted primarily on ancient Maya cave sites where she has advanced mapping and imaging methods using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), LiDAR, and other 3D visualization techniques. Most recently, she has collaborated with the Southern Sierra Miwuk Nation in recording rock art sites in Mariposa and Merced Counties.
Merritt Writing Program
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Daniel Ayala is a highly experienced composition instructor who has had the pleasure of living and teaching throughout the United States. Drawing upon an extensive multidisciplinary academic and professional background, Daniel encourages students to develop new connections and expand ideas through an iterative, recursive writing process. In his teaching, Daniel aims to provide an engaging introduction to the world of ideas that students will encounter during their undergraduate education. His selection of readings introduces students to the diverse intellectual traditions of the humanities, including imaginative, expository, and argumentative texts. Daniel is passionate about guiding students through this transformative stage of their academic journey, striving to cultivate a spirit of curiosity and love of learning that students will carry into the future.
History/Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
I’m an Associate Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies. My scholarship and teaching focus on the intersection of race and gender, with an emphasis on Black feminism and film/media. I’m the author of the books Black Women Directors, Contemporary Black Women Filmmakers and the Art of Resistance, and the edited collection Kasi Lemmons: Interviews.
Merritt Writing Program
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Alex Block joined UC Merced's Merritt Writing Program in 2013. She holds a doctorate in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a focus on non-dramatic early modern English literature, and previously taught literature and scholarly writing at Bucknell University, Duke University, and her graduate institution. She is a past director of UW-Madison's Online Writing Center and a past assistant director of the Duke Writing Studio.
Public Health
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Asa Bradman is an expert in exposure assessment and epidemiology focusing on occupational and environmental exposures to pregnant women, children, and farmworkers living in agricultural communities. In 1998 he co-founded the Center for Environmental Research and Children's Health (CERCH) at UC Berkeley and in 2020 Bradman joined the faculty at UC Merced. Bradman leads exposure and epidemiologic studies examining pesticides, flame retardants, metals, emerging pollutants, VOCs, air quality and other contaminants. He participates in extensive community outreach and education and interfaces with other scientists, state and federal agencies, policy makers and industry. He is past member and Chair of the California Biomonitoring Scientific Guidance Panel (appointed by Governors Schwarzennegger in 2007, Brown in 2013), and in 2017 he was appointed to a five-year term on the USDA National Organic Standards Board. Early in his career, Bradman harvested grapefruits and apples for export, worked on a chicken farm, and was the produce manager for a small grocery store.
Merritt Writing Program
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
John Bultena grew up and was raised in Merced. His teaching focuses on writing in the field of Engineering. In addition, his SPARK seminar, “Dungeons & Dragons Skills IRL?” has allowed students to delve into inquiry regarding tabletop roleplaying games, including their therapeutic applications, marketing, critiques of statistical models, question of AI, play in adults, and many more while bringing in speakers from the professional world of tabletop games. John is also a part-time academic librarian. He is also an avid streamer of his actual play series, Abraxas’ Precipice.
Global Arts, Media, and Writing Studies
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
At UC Merced, Dr. Camfield leads a research group dedicated to exploring strategies for developing student resilience in the face of compounding adversities. She also has general research interests in pedagogy and administration. (Since 1997, she has served as an instructor, curriculum designer, and faculty pedagogy coordinator. She spent five years as director of a university writing program and subsequently worked as the Executive Director of Student Academic Success Services.) Eileen’s abiding commitment to advancing equity, diversity and inclusion connects with her primary research interests pertaining to student success, writing self-efficacy development, anti-racist pedagogy, and authentic assessment.
Global Arts, Media, and Writing Studies
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Aditi Chandra teaches art history at the University of California, Merced and specializes in the Islamic world, with a focus on South Asia. Her research shows how, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, physical transformations and subaltern actors disrupting statist narratives rendered the monument unruly even as the State attempted to order it. Her book Unruly Monuments: Disrupting the State at Delhi’s Islamic Architecture is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press. She is co-editor (with Vinita Chandra) of Nations and its Margins: Re-thinking Community (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019). She has curated exhibitions showcasing colonial visual travel ephemera.
Political Science
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Professor Aditya Dasgupta is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and Director of the Political Economy of Agriculture and Rural Societies (PEARS) lab at the University of California, Merced. His research is on comparative political and economic development, with a focus on technology, governance, democracy, and agriculture. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from Harvard University.
Life and Environmental Sciences
School of Natural Sciences
Mike is an evolutionary ecologist applying genomic tools to understand the origins, maintenance, and loss of biodiversity. His lab explores a wide diversity of taxa (crustaceans, fishes, jellyfishes, molluscs, sea stars, and more) in a variety of places (Indonesia, Palau, Thailand, West Coast of the USA). We are developing approaches to genomic conservation. We are intrigued by exploring biogeographic similarities and differences among marine and non-marine systems. We are committed to greater accessibility to rigorous scientific publishing.
Anthropology and Heritage Studies
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
As a Ph.D. holder in Interdisciplinary Humanities, specializing in Heritage Studies, I am deeply involved in ongoing community-based archaeological research. Currently serving as Project Director at Proyecto Arqueológico Cerro de En Medio, Mexico, my focus lies in unraveling subsistence strategies along the Northern Mesoamerican border. Proficient in remote sensing techniques, particularly drone photogrammetry and LiDAR data interpretation, I actively contribute to developing immersive virtual experiences for heritage visualization and dissemination, including digital historical reconstructions. My work not only enriches scholarly understanding but also fosters public engagement with cultural heritage.
Molecular and Cell Biology
School of Natural Sciences
Xuecai Ge studied embryonic neurogenesis for this PhD thesis at Harvard University, and her work revealed how psychiatric disease-related proteins affect neuronal production in the brain. As a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford, She investigated Hedgehog signaling and its implications in pediatric brain tumors. Her lab studies cell signaling in neurodevelopment and neurological disorders, focusing on the primary cilium, a miniature hair-like organelle at the cell surface. She is passionate about nurturing the next generation scientists.
Mechanical Engineering
School of Engineering
Professor Sachin Goyal’s research group at UC Merced delves into fundamental mechanical engineering research. Their focus lies at the intersection of mechanics, dynamics, and controls, driven by applications in biology and medicine. They emphasize physical modeling, mathematical analysis, and computational simulations. Their investigations span human biomechanics to the structural dynamics of micro-scale biological filaments. For example, they explore the biomechanical symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, aiming to transform early diagnosis and treatment strategies. Additionally, their work bridges engineering applications with cross-disciplinary impact.
Civil and Environmental Engineering
School of Engineering
Dr. Erin Hestir is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Merced, specializing in environmental remote sensing for biodiversity, species invasions, biogeochemistry, and water quality.
Economics and Business Management
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Applied Microeconomist studying innovation, knowledge creation, and knowledge proliferation using patent data.
Chemistry and Biochemistry
School of Natural Sciences
A product of an enriching honors community and transformative undergraduate research experience, Prof. Hratchian is a strong advocate for honors studies and undergraduate research opportunities. Prof. Hratchian is a theoretical chemist specializing in computational molecular quantum mechanics. Research in the Hratchian Group lies at the intersection of chemistry, mathematics, physics, and computer science. The group’s work includes the development and application of efficient computational chemistry methods to explore interesting questions in chemistry and spectroscopy. Recent studies have focused on mechanism elucidation, electron detachment spectroscopy simulation for transition metal and lanthanide systems, and developing new electronic structure theory models.
Psychological Sciences
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Dr. Bobby Hutchison (he/him) lectures in the psychological sciences program at the University of California, Merced. He holds graduate degrees in biological sciences, health sciences, sociology, psychology and neuroscience, with further training in genetics/genomics, public health, and infectious diseases. Dr. Hutchison’s academic interests are broadly in the biological underpinnings of behavior, sexual and reproductive health, and infectious disease prevention research. He has most recently completed a study on Truvada (emtricitabine and tenofovir disiproxil fumarate) and Descovy (emtricitabine and tenofovir alafenamide) prescribing by advanced practice providers as pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention. He has published articles and edited a number of volumes in the areas of sexuality, gender, and health.
Global Arts, Media, and Writing Studies
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
An Assistant Teaching Professor in Writing Studies, Dr. Emily Rónay Johnston (she/her/hers) researches the relationship between writing, trauma, and resilience. Dr. Emily has published on writing about adversity and on teaching writing about adversity, in College Composition and Communication (2023), Writers: Craft & Context (2022), Rhetoric of Health and Medicine (2020), and elsewhere, and in the edited collections Systems Shift: Creating and Navigating Change in Rhetoric and Composition Administration (2023) and Composing Feminist Interventions: Activism, Engagement, Praxis (2018) published by University Press of Colorado.
Economics and Business Management
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Dr. Lee is an Associate Teaching Professor at UC Merced. He currently teaches a wide range of courses including Introduction to Economics, Statistical Inference, Intermediate Macroeconomics, Money and Banking, Economics of Sports and Economics of Investments. Dr. Lee's fields of interest include economic history and economic growth.
Materials Science and Engineering
School of Engineering
I'm a materials scientist and engineer who researches nanometer scale materials in the electron microscope. Some of the research projects I've been involved with include feline vaccine adjuvants, energy materials, and air particulate matter. I'm happy to work with Honors students interested in taking MSE 196H (MSE Honors Thesis) or honors by contract.
Molecular and Cell Biology
School of Natural Sciences
Professor Patti LiWang is a biochemist studying protein-protein interactions, particularly as they relate to viral inhibition (HIV, SARS-CoV-2) and for anti-inflammatory strategies.
Mechanical Engineering
School of Engineering
I am working on Heat and Mass Transfer in Energy and Water Systems.
Cognitive and Information Sciences
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Tyler Marghetis studies the lulls and leaps of human imagination. He is interested in how cognition and communication are accomplished by systems that vary in scale, from brains, to small groups, to large sociocultural systems.
Psychology
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
I use experiential and transformative pedagogy to teach introductory psychological concepts, as well as more advanced psychosocial explorations into culture and the nature of social inequity. In line with this focus, my research examines sociocultural and family processes that play into health disparities in pediatric chronic illness management. I am also the co-founder of Speed Diversity Dialogue, a low-cost multicultural excellence training workshop designed to improve diversity awareness and promote social inclusivity.
Political Science
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Prof. Menon’s work examines how vulnerability (real or perceived) shapes sociopolitical and economic outcomes. Prior to joining UCM, he was a Klarman Postdoctoral Fellow (2022 - 2023) in the Government Department at Cornell University. Prof. Menon completed his PhD in Political Science at the University of Michigan, an MSc. in Economic History (Research) at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a B.A. in Economics and History at Middlebury College. He is also an alumnus of the United World Colleges initiative.
Political Science
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Courtenay R. Monroe is Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science. Monroe’s research and teaching interests include political violence and human rights, particularly on how repressive agents make decisions in the face of domestic and international institutional constraints. She is also interested in international organizations, with a particular focus on legislative procedure in the United Nations. Her most recent work focuses on the effect of law on police violence in the United States and abroad. Her book, Contentious Compliance: Dissent and Repression Under International Human Rights Law was published in 2019 by Oxford University Press. Monroe’s research has been published in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Conflict Resolution, and Journal of Peace Research, among others.
Molecular and Cell Biology
School of Natural Sciences
My laboratory studies the mutualistic association between sepiolid squids (Mollusca: Cephalopoda) and their Vibrio symbionts which provides a versatile and experimentally tractable model system to study the population dynamics and cospeciation between bacterial species and their diversity among host squids.
Cognitive and Information Sciences
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Dr. David C. Noelle is Associate Professor and Department Chair of Cognitive and Information Sciences at the University of California, Merced. He is also a member of the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science graduate group. He received his Ph.D. in Cognitive Science and Computer Science from the University of California, San Diego, and he completed postdoctoral training at the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Noelle's research largely involves the fabrication, analysis, and testing of computational models of brain function, with a focus on the prefrontal cortex and its role in learning, memory, and the control of behavior.
Political Science
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Christopher Ojeda studies how citizens think about and engage with politics. He is especially interested in how poverty and mental health shape citizen engagement. His current book project, The Sad Citizen, explores how contemporary democratic politics makes citizens feel depressed.
Molecular and Cell Biology
School of Natural Sciences
My research is focused on regulation of metabolism during adapted/evolved and perturbed metabolic conditions.
Electrical Engineering
School of Engineering
Ayush Pandey is interested in research on control theory, computational modeling, and AI for the formal design of large-scale physical systems. Over the past few years, his research has focused on the development of robustness metrics and new inference tools for biological systems. He is also actively extending his research on computational tools to build scalable and open-source educational technologies that make classroom learning more interactive and engaging. As a faculty member at UC Merced, he is leading the pedagogy and curriculum design effort for the new Electrical Engineering department.
Mechanical Engineering
School of Engineering
My research focuses on electric and robotic vehicles. I am interested in combining power conversion with advanced control and optimization methods as a means of achieving high energy efficiency, durability and reliability of energy storage systems. Vehicle automation is another area of my research, with particular emphasis on safe motion planning and resilient control.
Chemistry and Biochemistry
School of Natural Sciences
Aurora Pribram-Jones is an electronic structure theorist, with a focus on density functional theory (DFT). In particular, the PJ Group focuses on analysis of exact theories using model systems, as well as developing ensemble and thermal extensions of ground-state DFT. A key project in the group is re-referencing thermal DFT to an infinitely interacting system, using the finite-temperature strictly correlated electron approach. Other projects in the group involve compositionally complex alloys, warm dense matter, and complicated ground and excited states.
Public Health
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
As an infodemiologist, Dr. Susana Ramírez applies communication science to advance public health goals. She is a nationally recognized expert on media, inequality, and health. Her research—published in Social Science & Medicine, American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Health Communication, and other journals—has examined the development and effectiveness of culturally tailored messages for Latinas, centering an interrogation of “culture” and acculturation processes in message effectiveness studies. Her current work examines policy discourse and media advocacy strategies pertaining to population health and public policy.
Political Science
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
I study topics in comparative political behavior and political economy with a focus on Mexico. I use a variety of techniques such as field experiments, surveys, interviews, and observational data.
Merritt Writing Program
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
I am a published author in Writing Studies with several publications and experience as the initiator of the online version of the UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal.
Computer Science and Engineering
School of Engineering
Florin's research interests lie in the area of databases and large scale data management in general, with a particular focus on designing and building infrastructure for Big Data analytics. Specific topics include query processing and optimization, approximate and randomized algorithms, and scalable machine learning. Scientific data processing as another facet of Big Data receives considerable attention in Florin's research through topics such as multi-dimensional array data management and in-situ data processing. Florin is interested both in theoretical aspects as well as system design issues. His research has been funded by UC Merced, US Department of Energy (DOE), National Science Foundation (NSF), California Department of Education, Hellman Foundation, LogicBlox, and TigerGraph.
Merritt Writing Program
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Dr. Matt Snyder’s research focuses on writing, representation, and the Holocaust.
Chemistry and Biochemistry
School of Natural Sciences
My lab studies protein biophysics, focusing on the relationship between their physical-chemical environment and their function.
Applied Mathematics
School of Natural Sciences
I'm interested in mathematics pedagogy and evidence-based approaches to improving the quality and accessibility of mathematics instruction.
Anthropology and Heritage Studies
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Christina Torres (she/her/ella) is a bioarchaeologist with work focused on northern Chile. She is currently a professor and Chair of the Department of Anthropology and Heritage Studies. She has led a number of research projects, all focused on the people who lived in the deserts of northern Chile. Her research and publications have focused on the body and its intersection with society and culture. Her focus is on body modifications and patterns of violence and the traces these leave on the skeleton. At UC Merced she teaches Anthro 5, and upper division courses focused on the skeleton and mortuary archaeology.
History/Critical Race and Ethnic Studies
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Born and raised on Guam, I am, at heart, an islander, a factor that informs my research interests and approaches to the greater Pacific region. My interests are in transnational tourism and urban development in the Pacific Rim region from the mid 20th century to the present. In particular I examine in the parallel development of the "sister islands" of Jeju, South Korea and the Hawai'ian Islands. Beyond this long-term research, I am also interested in urban humanities and cross-Pacific vernacular cultures.
Global Arts, Media, and Writing Studies
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
Since joining UC Merced in 2007, she has been active in the Writing Studies Minor, including founding the UC Merced Creative Writing Collaboratorium, a multi-campus conference, and curating the Write! Look! Listen! reading and workshop series. She has also been active in general education, assessment and review processes, the UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal, student clubs and events, as well as other campus initiatives and projects. These areas of engagement and inquiry stem from her teaching and research interests in collaborative, integrative, and empowering pedagogy and praxis, creative writing, interdisciplinarity, poetry, and creativity studies. Her poems have appeared in numerous publications, including journals such as Arts and Letters, Spoon River Poetry Review, Cimarron Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, and in the anthology, A Face to Meet the Faces: Contemporary Persona Poetry.
Merritt Writing Program
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
I am a proud UCM faculty member who strives to help students meet learning outcomes and larger life goals through engaging in research, writing and critical thinking.
Philosophy & Cognitive and Information Sciences
School of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts
I am a professor in the the departments of Cognitive and Information Sciences and Philosophy. I study the relationship between the dynamics of consciousness and the dynamics of neural activity in an embodied brain. As part of this, I model neural networks (I am the creator of Simbrain, www.simbrain.net), create mathematical models of embodied agents, and study Husserl (see Husserl.net, which I maintain). I have many other projects besides...I just can't help myself, I find almost everything to be interesting! A broad theme in all my work is finding ways to visualize complex processes to facilitate scientific reasoning and education.
