Liliane Bettencourt Prize for the Life Sciences presented in Paris to May-Britt Moser for her contributions to neuroscience and life sciences.
On 24 October 2006, May-Britt Moser received the 10th Prix "Liliane Bettencourt pour les Sciences du Vivant" from the Fondation Bettencourt Schueller in Paris. The prize recognized her contributions to life sciences, particularly her pioneering work in neuroscience on spatial representation and hippocampal-entorhinal circuits.
The Bettencourt Prize for the Life Sciences is a major French award that supports high-impact biological research. By this time, Moser had helped establish the Centre for the Biology of Memory and was driving investigations into how different cell types encode position, movement, and spatial memory. The prize provided both recognition and material support, reinforcing the international collaborations and ambitious experimental programs of her laboratory.
Historically, the award illustrated the cross-border appreciation of her work and the willingness of European philanthropic foundations to invest in frontier neuroscience. For women’s history, a prominent French life-sciences prize going to a Norwegian woman scientist challenged stereotypes about who leads cutting-edge experimental research and from where. It also helped solidify Moser’s personal scientific profile, distinct from but complementary to her collaborative work with Edvard Moser, and contributed to the institutional growth of systems neuroscience at NTNU.