Love is one of humanity’s most powerful emotions, inspiring some of the greatest art, literature and conquests of all time. While aspects of love are surely unique to our species, human romantic relationships are displays of a mating system characterized by pair bonding, likely built on ancient foundational neural mechanisms governing individual recognition, social reward, territorial behavior and maternal nurturing. Dr. Young will discuss his work on monogamous prairie voles that provide insights into neural mechanisms and evolution of pair bonding, and the implications for the neurobiology of Love.