Nobel laureate Moser becomes external member of the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology

Edvard Moser, neurophysiologist and Nobel laureate, was appointed External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute (MPI) of Neurobiology

Prof. Dr. Edvard Moser investigates how mammalian brains enables animals to navigate in their environment. Together with his wife May-Britt he discovered the so-called grid cells, which fit the animal’s environment into something like a virtual grid. Using this coordinate system and the information from place- and other place-modulated nerve cells, an animal's brain is able to compute its position. The research of Edvard Moser has thus provided fundamental insights into how spatial location and spatial memory are computed in the mammalian brain. Edvard and May-Britt Moser were bestowed the Nobel Prize in Medicine 2014 for their discovery of the grid cells. They share the prize with their colleague John O'Keefe, who had discovered the place cells. Together, the three scientists found and described the brain's internal navigation system.

Over the last couple of years Edvard Moser and scientists of the MPI of Neurobiology are closely collaborating. As part of this scientific exchange, Edvard Moser has spent many days and weeks at the Institute in Martinsried. Currently, he and Tobias Bonhoeffer, director at the MPI of Neurobiology, work on imaging the activity of grid cells with the help of 2-Photon-Microscopy. Based on the existing, intense collaboration and his outstanding scientific achievements, the directors of the Institute have proposed to appoint Edvard Moser as External Scientific Member of the MPI of Neurobiology. After evaluation by the Biomedical Section and the Senate of the Max Planck Society, the Society's president, Martin Stratmann, followed the committees' recommendation and asked Edvard Moser to become External Scientific Member of the MPI of Neurobiology. Edvard Moser has accepted this offer and has thereby also become a Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society. The MPI of Neurobiology has now three External Scientific Members:

• Prof. Dr. Yves-Alain Barde, Cardiff School of Biosciences (UK)
• Prof. Dr. Reinhard Hohlfeld, Institute for Clinical Neuroimmunology of the Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich
• Prof. Dr. Edvard Moser, Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience and Centre for Neural Computation (Trondheim/Norwegen)