Edvard Moser is one of the most respected scientists in the world today. He won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2014 for his amazing work discovering an internal GPS in the brain. He was born in Norway and is a psychologist and neuroscientist.

This is a very short episode, and when doctor Moser granted me the opportunity to interview him I didn’t want to focus on his work since it has been extensively covered by the media already, but rather I wanted to learn about his character, his philosophy. The human side of a legend. Aside from clearly being super smart, he is a very kind person and he was very happy to share his advice and perspectives.

I ask him what message would he give to underprivileged students in Latin America, and his answer is certainly inspiring.

We go over the most important skill he thinks someone needs to become successful. I also asked him whether having won the most coveted medicine prize in the planet makes him a happier person today.

Since we won’t be covering his work on the interview, I will share a very brief description of his discovery. For that I’m going to quote the Nobel Prize official page description. “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.”

He shared the Nobel prize with his mentor John O’Keefe and his then wife Mary Britt Moser.

This interview was possible thanks to Andrés Roemer, co founder of La Ciudad de las Ideas.

And now, enjoy this conversation. Feel free to contact us at contacto@clubdosporciento.com