The International Brain Bee (IBB) is a neuroscience competition for teenagers. The IBB was founded in 1999 by Norbert Myslinski, and consists of over 200 chapters in more than 50 regions on 6 continents. Its purpose is to help treat and find cures for brain disorders by inspiring and motivating students to pursue careers in basic and clinical neuroscience.
The IBB governing body is a consortium consisting of the American Psychological Association, Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives, Federation of European Neuroscience Societies, International Brain Research Organization, and Society for Neuroscience. Winners of the chapter competitions are invited to compete in their respective region championships, where they vie for the right to compete in the world championship. Past venues for the world championship include Montreal, Canada; San Diego, USA; Vienna, Austria; Washington, DC, USA; Cape Town, South Africa; Florence, Italy; Cairns, Australia; Baltimore, USA; Toronto, Canada; and Copenhagen, Denmark.
Past champions
International
Winners at the international level competed against representatives from other nations. Year First place Winner Country Second place Winner CountryThird place WinnerCountry 1999 David Alpay Canada 2000 Otilia Husu United States 2001 Arjun Bharioke United States 2002 Marvin Chum Canada 2003 Saroj Kunnakkat United States 2004 Bhaktapriya Nagalla United States 2005 John Liu United States 2006 Jong Park Canada 2007 Melody Hu United States 2008 Elena Perry United States 2009 Julia Chartove United States Kate Burgess New Zealand 2010 Ritika Chohani India Ben Thompson Australia 2011 Thanh-Liem Huynh-Tran United States United States 2012 Teresa Tang Australia Ionut Flavius Bratu Romania 2013 Jackson Huang Australia Giulio Deangeli Italy 2014 Gayathri Muthukumar India Eva Wang Australia 2015 Jade Pham Australia Soren Christensen United States Andra Cristiana StefanRomania 2016 Ana Ghenciulescu Romania Nooran AbuMazen Canada Matthew Z.M FultonNew Zealand 2017 Sojas Wagle United States Milena Malcharek PolandElwin Raj A/L P. Raj VethamuthuMalaysia2018Piotr OleksyPolandGiovanni De GannesGrenadaHuai-Ying HuangCanada 2019 Yidou Weng China Natalia Koc PolandKamand SoufiabadiIran2020Rahil PatelUnited StatesYu Cheng LimMalaysiaPeter SusantoAustralia2021 Fredrick OdezugoNigeriaViktoriia Vydzhak UkraineAntoni KlonowskiCanada2022Helene LiCanadaAnmol BhatiaUnited StatesUgne BirstonaiteLithuania2023Chun Hei TaiHong KongStanley ZhangNew ZealandKimia AhmadiIran2024Samuel RichardsAustraliaLisa WeiCanadaSiqi PanChina
United States
Winners at the national level competed against representatives from other states.
Year First place Winner State Second place Winner State Third place WinnerState 2007 Melody Hu MN 2008 Elena Perry MD 2009 Julia Chartove MD 2010 Yvette Leung NY 2011 Thanh-Liem Huynh-Tran CA 2012 Aidan Crank PA Sidharth Chand MI 2013 Emily Ruan MN Anvita Mishra CA 2014 Adam Elliot NJ Venkata Macha AL 2015 Soren Christensen DC Abhijeet Sambangi MA 2016 Karina Bao AR Xuchen Wei INWilliam EllsworthGA 2017 Sojas Wagle AR Aarthi Vijayakumar MNAmit KannanIN 2018 Akhil Kondepudi MO Hemanth Asirvatham MNSehej BindraNJ2019John YangNJJulia CollinNJClaire WangCA
Location Local brain bees take place in their respective states, while the National Brain Bee in the United States is usually held in Baltimore, Maryland. The site of the International Brain Bee changes yearly:
2009: Toronto, Canada 2010: San Diego, California, USA 2011: Florence, Italy 2012: Cape Town, South Africa 2013: Vienna, Austria 2014: Washington, D.C., USA 2015: Cairns, Australia 2016: Copenhagen, Denmark 2017: Washington, D.C., USA 2018: Berlin, Germany 2019: Daegu, South Korea 2020: Virtual [Held in 2021] 2021: Virtual 2022: Virtual 2023: Virtual
Participating Countries and Regions The following national and regional Brain Bee chapters are formally affiliated with the IBB and are currently active and eligible to be represented in the IBB World Championship. Each chapter is organized independently by volunteer coordinators, typically affiliated with universities or neuroscience institutions.
Region Country / Territory Organized By Website Africa Egypt Moataz Ibrahim Assem Brain Bee Egypt Africa Ethiopia Adam Mulugeta and Yared Zenebe ethiopianbrainbee.com Africa Ghana Robert Peter Biney Africa Kenya Mohamed Onyango Africa Nigeria Obi Augustine neurosciencenigeria.org Asia Bangladesh Fahim Khan and Shorat Kairi (Dhulikona) brainbeebd.site Asia China Jiangjie Yu chinabrainbee.com Asia Hong Kong Michael Lee brain.org.hk Asia India RMV Ravindranadh R V brainbee.in Asia Iran Ali Shahbazi nbml.ir Asia Israel Illana Gozes davidson.weizmann.ac.il Asia Japan Tetsu Okumura jnss.org Asia Kazakhstan Bayram Kenci bil.edu.kz Asia Korea Byoung-Kyong Min Asia Macao Irene Leong Asia Malaysia Muzaimi Mustapha neuro.org.my Asia Mongolia Erkhjin BatErdene Asia Nepal Sarun Koirala Asia Pakistan Touqeer Ahmed Asia Palestine Neuro-Pal Center Asia Singapore S Thameen Dheen / Singapore Neuroscience Association neuroscience.sg Asia Syria Ashraf Alkhayer and Mamon Saleh brainbeesyria.org Asia Taiwan Chih Tung Tsai taiwanbrainbee.com Asia Thailand Luke Ruedisueli brainbeethailand.my.canva.site Asia United Arab Emirates Sathy Parvathy Asia Vietnam Duc Tran Europe Albania Laura Loli-Dano Europe Armenia COBRAIN Center (Mher Kurghinyan and Patryk Stelmaszek) Europe Azerbaijan Elkhan Yusifov and Sadig Niftullayev neuroscience.az Europe Croatia Kristina Mlinac Jerković hdn.hr Europe France Brian Silvera francebrainbee.org Europe Georgia Nasrollah Moradikor and Arian Hizomi neuroscience.edu.ge Europe Germany Pierre Ekelmans neurowissenschaften-olympiade.de Europe Hungary Anna Padányi and Barbara Fülöp Europe Ireland John Kelly Europe Italy Roberto Ciccocioppa and Laura Soverchia Europe Latvia Daniel Zukovs Europe Lithuania Roma Siugzdaite brainbee.lt Europe Netherlands Marijn van Wingerden hersenolympiade.nl Europe Poland Elzbieta Malgorzata Pyza Europe Romania Cristian Gurzu romanianbrainbee.com Europe Türkiye Heja Mukader Yakut, Defne Cıngır and Ahmet Cemal Müftüoğlugil bad.org.tr Europe Ukraine Andrii Cherninskyi brainbee.in.ua Europe United Kingdom NeuroSpark North America Canada Nikol Piskuric South America Mexico Carol Warren Ornelas and Monica Rojas North America Costa Rica Georgina Grillo North America Grenada Gail Blackette North America United States Norbert Myslinski (University of Maryland) Oceania Australia Jenny Rodger, Bruno van Swinderen, Matthew Kirkcaldie Oceania New Zealand Amy Chapman South America Argentina Micaela Santilli
See also Deutsche Neurowissenschaften-Olympiade
References
External links International Brain Bee website: thebrainbee.org