May-Britt Moser

May-Britt Moser is a Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist whose discovery of the brain’s internal positioning system fundamentally changed how we understand memory, navigation, and cognition. A Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, she co-discovered grid cells — a class of neurons that create a precise coordinate system in the brain — a breakthrough that earned her the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Edvard Moser and John O’Keefe.

Nobel Prize speaker May-Britt Moser grew up on a small farm in Fosnavåg, Norway, and went on to study psychology, mathematics, and neurobiology at the University of Oslo. After earning her PhD in neurophysiology in 1995, she undertook postdoctoral research with Richard Morris at the University of Edinburgh and in John O’Keefe’s laboratory at University College London. She joined NTNU as an associate professor in 1996 and became a full professor in 2000, building one of the world’s most productive neuroscience research environments.

Her most celebrated contribution came in 2005, when she and Edvard Moser identified grid cells in the entorhinal cortex — neurons that fire in a strikingly regular hexagonal pattern as an animal moves through space, functioning as a biological GPS. Together with place cells, head direction cells, and border cells, these discoveries revealed a complete neural architecture for spatial representation and episodic memory. The implications extend far beyond basic science: the brain regions housing grid cells are among the first affected by Alzheimer’s disease, and Moser’s work is directly informing new approaches to understanding and treating cognitive decline.

The Architecture of Memory and Spatial Intelligence

Beyond the original grid cell discovery, Moser has continued to expand the field through her leadership of three consecutive Norwegian Centres of Excellence at NTNU: the Centre for the Biology of Memory (2002–2012), the Centre for Neural Computation (2013–2022), and the Centre for Algorithms in the Cortex, which she has directed since 2023. She is also Co-Director of the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience, a world-leading research center dedicated to understanding brain computation. Her honors include the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, the Louis Jeantet Prize, the Körber European Science Prize, election as a Fellow of the Royal Society, and membership in the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

As a speaker, May-Britt Moser brings the wonder of frontier neuroscience to audiences far beyond the research community. Her talks translate the science of the brain’s inner map — how we navigate, remember, and construct our sense of reality — into vivid, accessible insight for senior leaders, healthcare professionals, educators, and innovators. Audiences leave with a richer understanding of memory and cognition, the latest science behind Alzheimer’s research, and a compelling perspective on what the brain can teach us about intelligence, learning, and human potential.