News and Events
New Kavli Neuroscience Institute Established in Norway
The Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology Becomes the Fifteenth Kavli Institute Worldwide
August 14, 2007 Oxnard, Calif
In a ceremony held in Trondheim, Norway, the Kavli
Institute for Systems Neuroscience was established today at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
The new institute is dedicated to advancing our understanding of
neural circuits and systems in the brain, in part by enabling the
university's neuroscientists to introduce new experimental and
analytical methods in pursuit of research targeted at answering
fundamental questions in the field. This includes determining how
memory is encoded, stored and retrieved, and how the brain's
navigational
system works.
"I am delighted to establish this institute, which we expect to make
great future contributions toward further advancing the basic knowledge
and understanding of the brain," said Fred Kavli, founder of The Kavli
Foundation, prior to the ceremony. Noting the institute is being
established at his alma
mater,
Kavli added, "I think it's also important to note that, while it is an
added pleasure establishing this institute at a place that provided me
many fond personal memories, that is not why this institute is being
introduced here. It is because of the world-class neuroscience research
being conducted by scientists such as Edvard and May-Britt Moser."
 |
| New institute director Edvard Moser, Fred Kavli, and May-Britt Moser. (Credit: Thor Nielsen) |
The institute will be headed by Edvard Moser, who also will continue co-directing NTNU's Centre
for the Biology of Memory – a center that has provided key insights into how spatial location and
spatial memory are computed in the brain. One of these insights has led
to an immediate revision of well-established views of how the brain
calculates position and how the results of these computations
are used by memory networks in the hippocampus – an insight that may
ultimately benefit the development of tools for diagnostics and
treatment of Alzheimer's disease. The center and institute will
co-exist with the intent of eventually considering a new center that is
part of the Kavli institute.
 |
| Fred Kavli (foreground), with Minister of Education and Research Øystein Djupedal (center) and NTNU Rector Torbjørn Digernes (left) establishing the Institute. |
There are now 15 Kavli institutes worldwide dedicated to
neuroscience, nanoscience, astrophysics or theoretical physics. The
Norwegian institute is the fourth Kavli institute dedicated to
neuroscience, joining the Kavli Institute for Neuroscience at Yale
University, the Kavli Institute for Brain Science at Columbia
University, and the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind at the
University of California, San Diego.
Internationally, Kavli institutes are based at the following academic
and research institutions: (US) California Institute of Technology;
Columbia University; Cornell University; Harvard University,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Stanford University; University
of Chicago; University of California, San Diego; University of
California, Santa Barbara; Yale University; (UK) Cambridge University;
(Netherlands) Delft University of Technology; (Norway) Norwegian
University of Science and Technology; (China) Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Beijing; Peking University.
"The Kavli Foundation has established research institutes at leading
universities worldwide," said Øystein Djupedal, Norway's Minister of
Education and Research. "These are institutes of excellence and we are
honored that the Institute for Systems Neuroscience at the Norwegian
University of Science and Technology will form part of the family of
prestigious Kavli Institutes."
Fred Kavli, Minister Øystein Djupedal and NTNU Rector Torbjørn Digernes attended the ceremony.
About The Kavli Foundation
Established in 2000, The Kavli Foundation is dedicated to the
advancement of science for the benefit of humanity. The Kavli
Foundation supports scientific research, honors scientific achievement,
and promotes public understanding of scientists and their work through
an international program of research institutes, professorships and
symposia in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience.
The Foundation also supports the Kavli Prize, which beginning in 2008
will recognize the world's outstanding leaders in astrophysics,
nanoscience and neuroscience.
More information can be found at this website and www.kavliprize.no
Media Contacts:
The Kavli Foundation
James Cohen
(805) 278-7495
cohen@kavlifoundation.org
Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
Åse Sjømæling
011 +47 91-89-72-53
ase.sjomaling@ntnu.no
Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research
Karin Steenstrup
011 +47 905 64 454
karin.steenstrup@kd.dep.no
