Robert Malenka

Robert Malenka is a distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford School of Medicine, holding both MD and PhD degrees. His research career has focused on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity and reward processing in the brain.

He has made significant contributions to the field of neuroscience by elucidating how neural circuits encode reward and motivation, with particular emphasis on the role of dopamine and glutamate signaling in learning and addiction. His work has been instrumental in advancing our understanding of how experience shapes neural circuits through activity-dependent mechanisms.

At Stanford, Malenka has led a productive research laboratory that has trained numerous graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, contributing to both fundamental neuroscience and translational research with implications for psychiatric and neurological disorders.