For Immediate Release
Monday, August 9, 2004

Media Contacts:
University of California, Merced
Office of Communications
Patti Istas
(209) 658-4483
pistas@ucmerced.edu

Hiring of UC Merced Founding Faculty nears half completion

Merced – UC Merced is nearly halfway to its hiring goal of 60 top-flight professors needed by the university's opening day on Sept. 6, 2005. With 28 full-time, non-administrative faculty members, UC Merced's academic offices at the Castle facility in Atwater exude energy and excitement.

Some of the newest additions to the UC Merced cadre of teaching excellence include the following:

• Dunya Ramicova , an Emmy-award winning costume designer who will teach in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts;
  
• Ruth Mostern , who studies middle-period Chinese history and will be part of the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts;
  
• Cristián Ricci , a specialist in Spanish and Spanish-American literature who will teach in the School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts;
  
• Arnold Kim , who studies interdisciplinary issues between math, science and engineering and will join the School of Natural Sciences;
  
• David Ojcius , who returns to the San Joaquin Valley after 12 years pursuing pathology research at the Pasteur Institute in France and will teach in the School of Natural Sciences.
  

These new arrivals will join their colleagues in developing academic programs and teaching summer courses in preparation for opening day, recruiting the complement of founding faculty members, conducting student outreach and continuing with cutting-edge research projects.

To date, the University has attracted more than $10 million in funding through grants and contracts with an additional $21 million pending approval.

For more information about UC Merced's faculty, please click on: http://www.ucmerced.edu/faculty/facultylist.asp

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