UC Merced Magazine | Volume XIX, Issue VII

For more than two decades, Yoshimi has introduced students to his intellectual passions, such as the structure and dynamics of consciousness, using computational models and laptop-screen visualizations of his invention. “In my mind, UC Merced has always been R1 in its implicit self-understanding,” Yoshimi said. “ ere was a heavy emphasis on research right out of the gate.” Planning It Out A couple of years a er UC Merced earned R2, faculty members and administrators began to hammer out a roadmap for academics and research that would take advantage of the Merced 2020 Project expansion. The academic plan provided the framework for a campuswide strategic plan adopted in 2021. Its top-tier goals are: • Become a “national hub for interdisciplinary and transformational research.” In short, an R1 • Give students a world-class education delivered by outstanding educators and researchers • Foster a culture of dignity, respect and inclusion e academic plan, in turn, was seeded in UC Merced’s first accreditation by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges in 2011. WASC, among other things, insists that institutions show continuous improvement and stick to their missions and goals. “We had created an ethos that research and education can be profoundly complementary if you do it right,” said Gregg Camfield, then the executive vice chancellor and provost. “And we’re doing it right.” e academic plan was approved in 2019.

Professor Jeff Yoshimi

(Continued from page 9) In February 2025, the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education confirmed that UC Merced belonged in the top tier of academic research, bestowing its R1 classification on the 20-year-old university. e classification, owned by a mere 187 universities nationwide, is given for featuring “very high research spending and doctorate production.” Only 10 years earlier, UC Merced received Carnegie’s “higher research” classification, R2, faster than any institution in the foundation’s history. It’s been quite a journey. Here are some moments along the way: Some Sage Hiring Advice Jeff Yoshimi joined UC Merced a year after the first spade of earth was turned to build the campus in 2003. T he cognitive science professor, part of an exclusive club known as founding faculty, remembers gatherings with people conversant in the UC’s mission to drive academic research. “One person said, ‘If I have one piece of advice, it would be to always hire people smarter than yourself,’” Yoshimi said.

You could feel this energy around campus like, ‘It’s really happening.’ — Professor Hrant Hratchian

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