Edvard I. Moser
Facts
© Nobel Media AB. Photo: A. Mahmoud
Edvard I. Moser
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2014
Born: 27 April 1962, Ålesund, Norway
Affiliation at the time of the award: Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway
Prize motivation: “for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain”
Prize share: 1/4
Life
Edvard Moser was born in Ålesund, Norway. After studying at the University of Oslo, where he met his future wife and co-recipient May-Britt Moser, he received a doctorate in neurophysiology in 1995. After stays at the University of Edinburgh and University College London, the couple moved to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Edvard Moser is a professor of neuroscience and director of the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience in Trondheim. Edvard and May-Britt Moser have two daughters.
Work
The awareness of one’s location and how to find the way to other places is crucial for both humans and animals. In 2005 May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser discovered a type of cell that is important for determining position close to the hippocampus, an area located in the center of the brain. They found that when a rat passed certain points arranged in a hexagonal grid in space, nerve cells that form a kind of coordinate system for navigation were activated. They then went on to demonstrate how these different cell types cooperate.
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