UC Merced Magazine | Volume XIX, Issue VII

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Scheibner’s lab at UC Merced delves into the quantum realm, studying interactions between light-based matter and structures only a few atoms or molecules wide. Research into quantum materials and information connects Scheibner and his students to a network of other institutions. e work also circles back to agriculture, such as the challenge of growing food during space travel. “How do you do that in an extreme environment?” Scheibner said. “Our semiconductor quantum nanomaterials can help provide the conditions to make it possible.” The Pandemic T ere’s a picture-a-day desk calendar encased in plastic behind Betsy Dumont’s desk. “Friday, March 20, 2020,” it reads. Under the date is a multicolored photo of a chameleon’s skin. T e calendar is frozen on the day she and thousands of others left campus because of the rapidly unfolding pandemic. California ordered everyone to take shelter, preferably at home, to stem the spread of the mysterious virus. “I remember coming back to the office a er I don’t know how many months and being struck by, ‘My God, I’ve been gone that long?’” said Dumont, UC Merced’s executive vice chancellor and provost. For more than a year, scattered faculty, sta and students strived to operate as a public research university. ose whose jobs brought them to campus returned under tight restrictions. ere were masks, personal distancing, COVID-19 tests and Zoom calls — so many Zoom calls. Andrew Boyd was chosen to direct the university through COVID-19 as its chief resilience officer. He said the journey was harrowing, exhausting... and inspiring. He learned about infectious diseases from biology Professor Katrina Hoyer and testing for COVID-19 via saliva from then-Director of Medical Education Thelma Hurd. “I was so thankful to be surrounded by such expertise and to be a part of the UC system,” said Boyd, now associate vice chancellor for strategic infrastructure, planning and institutional e ectiveness. “UCLA, UC San Diego, UC

Associate Vice Chancellor for Strategic Infrastructure, Planning and Institutional (IIHFWLYHQHVV $QGUHZ %R\G VHUYHG DV FKLHI UHVLOLHQFH RIȰFHU GXULQJ WKH PRVW challenging days of the COVID pandemic.

Davis o ered all the resources they could. “ ough it was a terrible time, I feel blessed to have been here at UC Merced,” he said, “to see the resilience of our campus community. To grind through it.” Putting R1 to a Thesis Test It’s 8 a.m. in Merced and 5 p.m. in Munich, where Ana Becerril has popped onto Zoom to talk about her thesis. Seven years ago, she finished the paper that secured a master’s degree in business administration from California State University, Stanislaus. Its title: “A Strategic Analysis of How the University of California, Merced Can Achieve R1 Status in the Carnegie Classification.”

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