May-Britt Moser, PhD, is a Norwegian neuroscientist who shared half of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Moser received a degree in psychology at the University of Oslo in 1990. Though she was a psychology student she, along with her husband Edvard Moser, were interested in studying the brain. She was awarded her PhD in Neurophysiology in 1995. They both went to University College London to work with neuroscientist John O’Keefe. Together the Mosers and O’Keefe pioneered research on the brain’s mechanism for representing space. In 2005 May-Britt Moser and Edvard discovered types of neurons close to the hippocampus called grid cells, which are important for determining position. Moser’s work helped other scientists learn about the cognitive processes and spatial deficits associated with human neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. In 2014, the Mosers shared half of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The other half of the prize was awarded to John O’Keefe.
Learn more at nobel.org.