Australian Appetitive Motivation Symposium 2025

Exploring addiction, feeding, and decision-making

Wednesday, 6 August 2025
UNSW Sydney, Australia

We are excited to announce the return of the Australian Appetitive Motivation Symposium (AAMS), to be held at UNSW Sydney on Wednesday, August 6th, 2025. This year’s meeting is a satellite event to the international Pavlovian Society Meeting, also being held in Sydney from August 7–9.

About AAMS 2025

AAMS aims to bring together researchers and clinicians working at the intersection of appetitive motivation, including addiction, feeding, and decision-making. The symposium will feature an engaging mix of keynote presentations and selected talks from both early career and established researchers across Australia and abroad.

The 2025 program will highlight emerging themes across:
• Addiction to alcohol and drugs of abuse
• Ingestive behavior and feeding
• Neural circuits supporting reward learning and decision-making

Speakers

Plenary Speakers:
• Prof. Geoff Schoenbaum (National Institute on Drug Abuse, USA)
• A/Prof. Susan Sangha (Indiana University School of Medicine, USA)

Other Confirmed Speakers:
• Dr. Mugdha Joglekar (Western Sydney University)
• Dr. Maya Opendak (Johns Hopkins)
• A/Prof. Jay Bertran-Gonzalez (UNSW)

Download the program from here

Poster Session & Prize

We welcome poster submissions from students, postdocs, and senior researchers. A prize will be awarded for Best Poster, and all attendees are invited to join a reception and networking session following the presentations.

Registration

Attendance is free, but RSVP is essential for catering and planning purposes.

Register here

Venues

The symposium will take place at UNSW Sydney, Kensington Campus.

Session 1
9.00am -12.30pm, Lawrence Theatre (H13), UNSW Kensington

Session 2
1.30pm - 5.00pm, Sir John Clancy Auditorium (C24), UNSW Kensington

Please refer to UNSW Kensington Map for exact locations.

Contact us

If you have any questions about AAMS 2025, please contact us at aams@unsw.edu.au