Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience to Present on Risks and Opportunities of Adolescence from Developmental Neuroscience Perspective
Eva Telzer of UNC Chapel Hill is the 2024 Rosenberg and Lambert Speaker and will give her talk on February 8.Friday, January 19, 2024 00:27 PM
Eva Telzar, professor of psychology and neuroscience at UNC Chapel Hill, is the 2024 Rosenberg and Lambert Speaker. Courtesy PhotoThe Department of Psychology will host Eva Telzer, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at UNC Chapel Hill, as the 2024 speaker for the John B. Rosenberg ’63 and Stephanie Lambert Speaker Series.
Telzer will present “A Developmental Neuroscience Perspective on the Risks and Opportunities of Adolescence” at 5 p.m. on Thursday, February 8, in Moyer Hall’s Miller Forum. Faculty, staff and students are welcome to attend and members of the public are invited to watch the event via the live stream. Streaming details will be made available prior to the event and those wishing to tune in should RSVP here.
Second only to infancy in brain development changes, adolescence has often been portrayed as defective in the media, Telzer says. It’s a time where teens are labeled as obsessed with sex, sleep and volatile emotions, but Telzer says this developing brain is programmed to learn and adapt, seek out social connections and prepare itself for lifelong flourishing.
Telzer’s talk draws on developmental social neuroscience research, underscoring the malleability of the adolescent brain and highlighting how this neurobiological sensitivity to social context can be an opportunity for social adjustment and redirecting negative trajectories.
In addition to her role as a professor of psychology and neuroscience at UNC Chapel Hill, Telzer is an associate editor at Child Development and Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience and the co-director of the Winston National Center on Technology Use, Brain and Psychological Development.
Her research examines how social and cultural processes shape adolescent brain development, with a focus on both prosocial and risk-taking behaviors, family and peer relationships, and the role of social media in youth’s lives. She has authored over 200 publications and has received numerous awards for her work including an APA Rising Star Award, an early career award from the Society of Research on Adolescence, a Young Investigator Award from the Flux Congress Society for Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience and the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology. She is regularly featured as an expert in psychological science in consultation to government agencies and non-profit associations as well as media appearances in The New York Times, NPR, CNN, ABC, CBS and NBC.
The John B. Rosenberg ’63 and Stephanie Lambert Speaker Series is coordinated by the Department of Psychology at Muhlenberg College. Past speakers include Ryan Lei, an assistant professor of psychology at Haverford College, Russell Ramsay, Ph.D., is an associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, and Rebecca Bigler, professor emeritus of psychology and women’s and gender studies at the University of Texas.
