Margaret Stelzner
PhD 2026
Pronouns: she/her
PhD Thesis
Ventral Tegmental Area GABA neurons: a motivational saliency signal across broad learning contexts
Undergraduate Institution and Major:
Macalester College, B.A. in Neuroscience Studies, 2018
Graduate Advisor
Ben Saunders, Ph.D., Department of Neuroscience
Graduate Research:
I study how subpopulations of neurons in the ventral tegmental area shape learning and reinforcement.
Graduate Publications:
Stelzner ME, Wolff AR, Saunders BT. Ventral tegmental area GABA neurons integrate positive and negative valence. Nat. Commun. 2005;16(1):10357.
Graduate Awards/Honors
- Sping and Ying Ngoh Lin Award 2023
- Stark Award for Advanced Scholarship 2023
- NIH NRSA F31 2023
- Center for Neural Circuits in Addiction Pilot Grant Award 2023
GPN Committees
Outreach Committee, 2021 - present
Thesis Committee
Mark Thomas, Ph.D., Department of Neuroscience (Chair)
Anna Lee, Ph.D., Department of Pharmacology
Arif Hamid, Department of Neuroscience
Undergraduate Research
As a postbac, I worked in Dr. Peter Rapp's Laboratory of Behavioral Neuroscience at the National Institute on Aging studying neurobiological mechanisms of cognitive aging and how sleep may play a role.
