Academics & Research
Lab Celebrates NASA Rover’s Landing on Mars
On a cool February afternoon in the Central Valley, members of Professor Ashlie Martini’s research group gathered on Zoom as a robot named Perseverance made its final approach to Mars. They watched via video as mission control in Pasadena exploded in joy and relief while announcing the NASA rover’s successful landing.
For Martini’s team, which played a role in preparing Perseverance, the rush of emotion was far more than a well-deserved sense of accomplishment.
“I would say that the moment gave us the strongest feeling of togetherness that we’ve had since we were in person before COVID,” Martini said.
I would say that the moment gave us the strongest feeling of togetherness that we’ve had since we were in person before COVID
Professor Ashlie Martini
Months earlier, current and former members of Martini’s Fundamental Tribology Lab conducted critical tests on the rover’s ability to collect, package and store samples. Specifically, the lab tested the Adaptive Caching Assembly’s dry film lubricants to ensure they would hold up in the Martian environment and let the mechanical components do their job.
The Martini lab worked with Duval Johnson, a UC Merced alumnus who now works as an engineer for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Ph.D. student Azhar Vellore led the testing project – and was part of that Feb. 18 Zoom watch party.
“When the rover landed, I was ecstatic and felt tremendously fortunate to have been able to contribute to this mission,” Vellore said.
A docuseries, "Mission to Mars," tells the story of UC Merced's partnership with NASA to explore the Red Planet.
Energy Flow: Covering Canals with Solar Panels
What if California covered its 4,000-mile canal system with solar panels? The result could be potentially vast amounts of saved water and renewable power, according to a study co-authored by UC Merced faculty.
The study published in the journal Nature Sustainability was authored by Professors Roger Bales, Joshua Viers and Tapan Pathak, along with researchers Andrew Zumkehr, Jenny Ta and Elliot Campbell in collaboration with UC Water and Professor Brandi McKuin of UC Santa Cruz, an alumna of UC Merced.
The panels would generate about half of the new power capacity the state needs by 2030 to meet goals to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the study says. In addition, the panels would provide shade that cuts down on evaporation, and the retirement of diesel pumps and generators in favor of the solar arrays would put a dent in the Central Valley's perennially poor air quality.
By the numbers
Source: “Energy and Water Co-benefits From Covering Canals with Solar Panels,” Nature Sustainability
63
Billion gallons of
water saved annually
50,000
Acres of farmland
irrigated per year
13
Gigawatts of solar power generated
per year
$40,000
Annual savings in
maintenance per
mile of canal
What is most compelling about this study is that when you tally up the multiple benefits, Solar over canals represents the sort of shift in thinking that California and the world need as we transition economy and infrastructure to a fossil-free, sustainable future.
Professor Roger Bales
Globetrotting Student is
UC Merced’s First Rhodes Scholar
A third of a world away, one exceptional student saw a young university as the ideal place to continue her studies. Now Selina Brinkmann is poised to take her next leap – as UC Merced’s first Rhodes Scholar.
Selina Brinkmann’s fascination with wind and marine turbine energy brought her from Germany to the San Joaquin Valley, where in 2019 she began graduate studies in mechanical engineering, joining Professor James Palko’s lab and researching water management for agriculture.
This fall, she will begin her Ph.D. studies with a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University. Only about 100 full scholarships each year are awarded worldwide by the Rhodes Trust.
“This first showcases our growing stature as a research university and what I love about UC Merced,” School of Engineering Dean Mark Matsumoto said.
A small-scale campus combined with big-scale rigor in her academic field attracted Brinkmann to UC Merced.
“The class sizes are small, and it is easy to get in touch with a professor,” she said. “I was intrigued by the focus on renewable energies and sustainability. No other campus has such a big focus on it.”
Bilingual Bard Makes
Shakespeare More Accessible
Olviden, perdonen, conceden, y marchen en paz: Nuestros doctores dicen que no es tiempo de sangrar.
So speaks the eponymous lead character in Episode I of “Ricardo II,” a bilingual production of one of Shakespeare’s best-known history plays. The performance by Merced ShakespeareFest was conceived by UC Merced lecturer William Wolfgang and the company’s artistic director, Heike Hambley. It features the talents of several university students and faculty.
Performers alternate between Spanish and English in a manner that makes the Bard accessible in either language. Professor Alejandro Gutierrez has the lead role of the deeply flawed monarch. The line above, in English: Forget, forgive, conclude and be agreed: Our doctors say this is no time to bleed.
Wolfgang, who studies grassroots theater, said “Richard II” and its political machinations was a timely subject ripe for experimentation. “I was thinking, ‘What could we do with that play to make it more relatable? More engaging? More exciting?’” he said.
Because it was produced during the pandemic, Merced ShakespeareFest filmed the production and posted it in 12 episodes on the company’s YouTube channel. Recent graduate Angel Nuñez (’20) translated the English text and created the videos’ subtitles with help from co-adaptor Maria Nguyen-Cruz (’20). English major Cathryn Flores composed the production’s score, using Latin instruments and electronic music.
The production has earned broad attention. Erin Sullivan of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford on Avon tweeted about it before inviting the creators to contribute an essay for her book “Lockdown Shakespeare.”
New publishing agreement expands access to research
UC Merced’s cutting-edge research now has a broader reach thanks to University of California’s transformative agreement with Elsevier, the world’s largest academic publisher. The four-year publishing agreement, which took effect April 1, restores direct online access to Elsevier journals and meets two goals for UC Merced:
• Enable universal, open access to all UC research
• Contain the high costs associated with licensing journals
The agreement facilitates open-access publishing of UC research in more than 2,500 Elsevier journals. The prestigious Cell Press and Lancet families of journals will be integrated midway through the agreement.
The Elsevier agreement moves UC Merced and its sister campuses closer to the ultimate goal of making it possible for all authors to publish with open access in any journal they choose, giving the public a full view of UC’s research.
Honors Roundup
Wiebe Earns Lifetime Award
Professor Deborah Wiebe was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Behavioral Medicine Child and Family Health Special Interest Group. Wiebe came to UC Merced in 2013 and became the director of the Health Sciences Research Institute in January 2019.
“For us, Deb has always been known as a star researcher and a campus leader. We are delighted to find colleagues across the nation sharing our admiration.” – Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Gregg Camfield
Hagger a Top 1% Cited Researcher
Web of Science has named Psychological Sciences Professor Martin Hagger as a Highly Cited Researcher by Web of Science, placing him in the top 1% worldwide. Hagger’s work identifies factors such as motivation, planning and habits linked to health behavior, and how this information can be used to change behavior.
Five Earn NSF CAREER Awards
Five UC Merced faculty members have earned the National Science Foundation CAREER awards effective in 2021.
The award supports untenured faculty
members as teacher-scholars.
Civil and Environmental Engineering Professor Marie-Odile Fortier for her plan to make more accurate assessments of renewable energy systems’ carbon footprints.
Physics Professor Bin Liu for his work on a new micromanipulation technique to virtually hold freely moving microorganisms, creating a “bacterial treadmill.”
Physics Professor Dustin Kleckner for research on how optical and acoustic binding controls interactions among particles and how it manipulates them into self-organizing structures.
Physics Professor Daniel Beller on his study of how complex organization arises from simple physical interactions for biological cells or polymers assembled in large numbers.
Bioengineering Professor Arvind Gopinath for research into how living biological materials such as bacterial swarms respond to physical features of their environments and cause infection.
