Samuel Traina is the Interim Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, and Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of California, Merced. He received a B.S. in Soil Resource Management and a Ph.D. in Soil Science from the University of California, Berkeley. He extended his education and training through a postdoctoral study at the University of California, Riverside.

The National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have funded Dr. Traina's work in environmental chemistry. This work has focused on the fate and transport of contaminants in natural environments with an emphasis on surface- chemical reactions in soils and sediments. Particular effort has been placed on the use of noninvasive spectroscopy (i.e. synchrotron-based x-ray absorption spectroscopy and aqueous vibrational spectroscopy) to elucidate the surface speciation of contaminants on natural nano-particles. His current research is examining the isotopic composition and surface chemical properties of black carbon particles produced during the combustion of biomass and fossil fuels. He is presently a member of the Earth Resources Committee, a standing committee of the National Research Council and holds the Ted and Jan Falasco Chair in Earth Sciences and Geology at UC Merced.

Professor Traina served as the Founding Director of the Sierra Nevada Research Institute at UC Merced. Prior to that he was at Ohio State University where he served as a faculty member from 1985-2002. During that period he was Chair of the Environmental Science Graduate Program and Co-Director and Co-PI of an NSF-funded Environmental Molecular Science Institute.