Welcome!

We invite you to attend the 4th Minnesota Symposium on Addiction Neuroscience, to be held in Minneapolis on Friday, October 30th, 2026. The symposium is sponsored by the University of Minnesota's Medical Discovery Team on Addiction. 

The day-long conference will bring together basic scientists, clinician-scientists, and others to discuss the latest, most exciting brain science on addiction. The scientific program will feature plenary sessions, poster presentations, and a keynote speaker, Dr. Amy Hauck Newman from the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA). Presentations will emphasize how the neural circuits that control emotions, motivations, and decision-making are altered through addiction and recovery, with an eye towards how neurocircuit science might inform the creation of new, more effective therapies to treat addiction. Our featured speakers are as follows: Drs. Daniel Castro (Washington University in St. Louis), Ghazaleh Soleimani (University of Minnesota), Jodi Gilman (Harvard Medical School), Sade Spencer (University of Minnesota) and Jeff Boissoneault (University of Minnesota).

Looking forward to seeing you in October!

The Symposium Planning Committee:

Benjamin Clark, PhD, Ezequiel Marron Fernandez de Velasco, PhD, Karrie Molitor, Micaela Porod, Mark Thomas, PhD (conference chair), Jocelyn Richard, PhD, Cristina Rivera Quiles, Rachel Schorn, Lana Yarosh, PhD 

For any inquiries, please contact: mdtaddiction@umn.edu