Latest Articles

New astrophysics research supports the existence of an unknown influence

ldarl002 — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0700

A University of California, Riverside, study has expanded our knowledge of the structure of the universe and supports the existence of a new physical effect, such as a particle that has never been observed before. The astrophysicists used the “Lyman-Alpha Forest,” a powerful tool for mapping the distribution of hydrogen in the universe — and, indirectly, dark matter. The “forest,” a series of absorption lines in the spectra of distant quasars and galaxies, is so named because in graphs it appears like a dense tangle of saplings. To analyze the forest, the scientists used a new model and

Parched Central Valley farms depend on Sierras for groundwater

ldarl002 — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0700

New research shows that California’s Central Valley, known as America’s breadbasket, gets as much as half of its groundwater from the Sierra Nevadas. This is significant for a farming region that, in some parts, relies almost entirely on groundwater for irrigation. While it is easy to see above-ground reservoirs rise and fall with the rain and snow, aquifers are a natural water source hidden out of sight, in some cases hundreds of feet underground. “They are like giant bathtubs full of water and sediment,” said UC Riverside associate professor of groundwater hydrology Hoori Ajami. Scientists

UCR has the most California applicants of any UC campus

ldarl002 — Fri, 02 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0700

UC Riverside admitted the most California first-year students for fall 2024 of any University of California campus, according to numbers released by the UC system on July 31. Its 36,585 outpaced No. 2 Santa Cruz by more than 1,500. UCR also set a campus record for first-year admits, with 44,328, an increase of more than 4,000 from fall 2023. It was a record-setting year for the entire UC system with 93,920 first-year admission offers to California students and 166,706 total admission offers. Drilling down further, UCR admitted the most Black first-year students of any campus, with 2,054. It

Prestigious NIH award will advance brain research at UCR

ldarl002 — Tue, 30 Jul 2024 00:00:00 -0700

A National Institutes of Health grant received by Vijayalakshmi (Viji) Santhakumar, a professor of molecular, cell and systems biology at the University of California, Riverside, has been selected for the prestigious Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award, the first time for the campus. The five-year, $3.5 million grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, or NINDS, of the National Institutes of Health is a collaborative study with Edward Zagha, an associate professor of psychology at UCR. The award will support research into how brain circuits contribute to

Luna UCR avocado is one of TIME's '2023 best inventions'

ldarl002 — Thu, 26 Oct 2023 00:00:00 -0700

new avocado variety that is the result of decades of painstaking tree breeding by UC Riverside agricultural scientists has been selected as one of TIME's 2023 Best Inventions, the international news outlet announced Tuesday, Oct. 24. This recognition comes just months after UCR released the variety, called the Luna UCR™, to commercial growers worldwide through an international crop marketing partner. The Luna UCR™ is one of TIME's 200 “groundbreaking” inventions that debuted this year and “are changing how we live, work, play, and think about what’s possible,” TIME said in a statement. “To

Faculty members discuss AI’s possible impacts at UCR

ldarl002 — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 00:00:00 -0700

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has arrived, and we are just beginning to see its impacts on how we work, play and, well, study. As it eliminates busywork and opens the door to new learning frontiers, AI is expected to create a paradigm shift in higher education instruction. UCR’s XCITE Center for Teaching and Learning can help faculty redesign course content and curriculum to explore or embrace AI. So, what can we expect as AI moves into our classrooms and onto our computer screens? We asked Richard Edwards, the executive director of the XCITE Center; Rich Yueh, an assistant professor of

UCR named among ‘Best Value’ and ‘Best West’ colleges in new rankings

ldarl002 — Tue, 22 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0700

AUTHOR: IMRAN GHORI August 18, 2023 UC Riverside was named as one of the top academic institutions and best values for students by the Princeton Review in its latest rankings. UCR is included in both its Best Colleges for 2024 unranked list and the 2024 edition of its related guidebook “Best 389 Colleges.” Only 15% of America’s four-year colleges and universities are featured in the book. UCR also made the Best West list, an unranked grouping of 79 colleges in the region that are considered academically outstanding. The Princeton Review also created rankings for several topics where UCR did

UC Riverside sets new admissions record for fall 2023

ldarl002 — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0700

UC Riverside has set a new record for fall 2023 with 40,054 freshmen admits — an increase of 2,792 students from the previous year, according to data released August 8 by the University of California. Overall UC applications rebounded from a dip the previous fall, with 129,685 students admitted systemwide for fall 2023, an increase of more than 4,000 from fall 2022. California admits increased by more than 3,000 from 2022 numbers. UCR had the second-highest admissions mark in the system, and the second-highest number of California residents admitted. UCR admitted the most freshmen from

New inventory maps campus trees

ldarl002 — Mon, 07 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0700

The UC Riverside campus has all sorts of trees, from mature oaks that date to the 1950s to rare varieties such as a single monkey puzzle tree near Olmsted Hall. But until recently there were no precise records of the number of trees, their location, the type of species, and their condition. A partial inventory was started in 2014 but never completed. Earlier this year, Facilities Services began a tree mapping and inventory project that puts all that data into a digital database. For instance, the landscape team now knows the campus has 8,211 trees and about 200 different species. The inventory

Google & ChatGPT have mixed results in medical info queries

ldarl002 — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 00:00:00 -0700

When you need accurate information about a serious illness, should you go to Google or ChatGPT? An interdisciplinary study led by University of California, Riverside, computer scientists found that both internet information gathering services have strengths and weaknesses for people seeking information about Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia. The team included clinical scientists from the University of Alabama and Florida International University. Google provides the most current information, but query results are skewed by service and product providers seeking customers, the

Weapons of mass destruction research gets $1 million grant

ldarl002 — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 00:00:00 -0700

The UCR Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering, or BCOE, has received $1 million in federal funding that will help develop science to neutralize some of the world's greatest weapons threats. The research will help gain new perspectives on key materials’ reaction under extreme stress and lead to enhanced computer models. Michael Zachariah, a distinguished professor of chemical engineering and materials science, leads the UCR team that helps the federal government broach that challenge. His BCOE colleagues are Lorenzo Mangolini, professor of mechanical engineering, and Bryan Wong

UC Riverside invited to join the AAU

J.D. WARREN — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 00:00:00 -0700

The University of California, Riverside, has been invited to join the Association of American Universities, or AAU, according to an announcement released today. Membership in the AAU is selective, and the association includes the nation’s foremost universities – those that claim the majority of competitively awarded federal research funding. “This is an historic moment for UC Riverside; one of the greatest achievements in campus history,” said UCR Chancellor Kim Wilcox, who has led the charge for AAU membership since becoming chancellor 10 years ago. “It’s difficult to overstate what this

Boozing while breastfeeding impacts health of newborns

gmcki004 — Thu, 18 May 2023 00:00:00 -0700

Studies have shown that consuming alcohol during pregnancy can alter the brain and behavioral development of gestating offspring. Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises against maternal alcohol consumption during pregnancy and state that there is no known safe level of consumption. What are the consequences, however, of mothers consuming alcohol while breastfeeding? A research team at the University of California, Riverside, performed a mouse study to find out. Led by Kelly Huffman, a professor of psychology, the team found that infants’ exposure to alcohol through

Breaking the heat barrier of computer innovation

ldarl002 — Wed, 17 May 2023 00:00:00 -0700

As our computers and other electronic devices become faster and more powerful, they are coming closer to an undeniable physical limitation: heat generated by the electrons that carry information as they move through semiconductors. “Making heat is a fundamental limit that will prevent the further development of electronic devices. So, we are basically hitting a bottleneck because our computers are way faster than they used to be two decades ago,” said Ran Cheng, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering with UCR’s Bourns College of Engineering. Workarounds – such as the

UCR in top 1.3% of world universities

ldarl002 — Wed, 17 May 2023 00:00:00 -0700

UC Riverside ranked in the top 1.3% of universities worldwide in the 2023 Center for World University Rankings, released Monday, May 15. The campus ranked No. 252 out of 20,531 institutions. Nationally, UCR landed at No. 82 and for the U.S. and Canada it was No. 92. The rankings are published by the Center for World University Rankings, a consultancy based in the United Arab Emirates. Institutions are evaluated on four key factors: education, employability, faculty, and research. Universities and colleges are assigned scores based on that methodology with 100 being the highest. UCR earned a

Meet the forest microbes that can survive megafires

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 00:00:00 -0700

New UC Riverside research shows fungi and bacteria able to survive redwood tanoak forest megafires are microbial “cousins” that often increase in abundance after feeling the flames. Fires of unprecedented size and intensity, called megafires, are becoming increasingly common. In the West, climate change is causing rising temperatures and earlier snow melt, extending the dry season when forests are most vulnerable to burning. Though some ecosystems are adapted for less intense fires, little is known about how plants or their associated soil microbiomes respond to megafires, particularly in

CNAS Science Lecture Series: Big Data Science (Part 3 of 4) with Dr. Mark Alber

eyim009 — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 00:00:00 -0700

The College of Natural & Agricultural Sciences at the University of California, Riverside is proud to present the 2022 Science Lecture Series entitled Big Data Science. This four-part series will focus on the technologies that allow us to collect and analyze data in ways we never imagined. The big data that those technologies generate have transformed not only how scientists do their research, but also how we view our world. This series will explore the progression of new technologies in areas such as statistics, climate, environment, agriculture, biology, medicine, mathematics, and astronomy

Fighting climate change with carbon capture and utilization technologies

Anonymous — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -0800

Last month the Biden-Harris administration unveiled ambitious plans to reduce carbon emissions through clean manufacturing that include federal investments of more than $12 billion in carbon capture, utilization, and sequestration technologies. These technologies take carbon out of the atmosphere and either convert it into useful industrial products or store it permanently. The White House is betting big on these emerging technologies to limit global warming and combat climate change. Here, two professors in UC Riverside’s Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering explain how carbon

Campus power system gets a boost

Anonymous — Tue, 22 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0800

An electrical infrastructure project underway for over a year will provide the campus with more reliability, capacity, and safety, said Drew Hecht, director of project management for the Office of Planning, Development, and Construction. “This is a huge step forward for the campus – reducing power outages that we’ve historically had in the past,” he said. For decades, the campus has relied on a single substation located in Parking Lot 30 to provide power, which is supplied through Riverside Public Utilities. A single disruption to one part of the system makes the whole campus vulnerable to an

Measuring the Research Impact of Minority-Serving Institutions with IRIS

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0800

The University of California, Riverside recently became the first minority-serving institution to become a member of the Institute for Research on Innovation and Science (IRIS), a consortium of research universities focused on providing data to understand, explain and improve the public value of higher education and research. Rodolfo Torres, Vice Chancellor of Economic Development and Research at UCR, will speak about the value of IRIS data on the economic and human impacts of sponsored research for the UCR community. Jason Owen-Smith, executive director of IRIS, will address the potential for