Abstract
The Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Foundation awarded the inaugural Brain Prize 2011 to Péter Somogyi, Tamás Freund and György Buzsáki 'for their wide-ranging, technically and conceptually brilliant research on the functional organization of neuronal circuits in the cerebral cortex, especially in the hippocampus, a region that is crucial for certain forms of memory'. The present article highlights key findings and major conceptual contributions by these three scientists that were recognized by the award.