International Brain Bee
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.[1] 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.[2]
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.[3] 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.[4]
Past champions
International
Winners at the international level competed against representatives from other nations.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]
| Year | First place Winner | Country | Second place Winner | Country | Third place Winner | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 Stefan | Romania |
| 2016 | Ana Ghenciulescu | Romania | Nooran AbuMazen | Canada | Matthew Z.M Fulton | New Zealand |
| 2017 | Sojas Wagle | United States | Milena Malcharek | Poland | Elwin Raj A/L P. Raj Vethamuthu | Malaysia |
| 2018 | Piotr Oleksy | Poland | Giovanni De Gannes | Grenada | Huai-Ying Huang | Canada |
| 2019 | Yidou Weng | China | Natalia Koc | Poland | Kamand Soufiabadi | Iran |
| 2020 | Rahil Patel | United States | Yu Cheng Lim | Malaysia | Peter Susanto | Australia |
| 2021 | Fredrick Odezugo | Nigeria | Viktoriia Vydzhak | Ukraine | Antoni Klonowski | Canada |
| 2022 | Helene Li | Canada | Anmol Bhatia | United States | Ugne Birstonaite | Lithuania |
| 2023 | Chun Hei Tai | Hong Kong | Stanley Zhang | New Zealand | Kimia Ahmadi | Iran |
| 2024 | Samuel Richards | Australia | Lisa Wei | Canada | Siqi Pan | China |
United States
Winners at the national level competed against representatives from other states.[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]
| Year | First place Winner | State | Second place Winner | State | Third place Winner | State |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | IN | William Ellsworth | GA |
| 2017 | Sojas Wagle | AR | Aarthi Vijayakumar | MN | Amit Kannan | IN |
| 2018 | Akhil Kondepudi | MO | Hemanth Asirvatham | MN | Sehej Bindra | NJ |
| 2019 | John Yang | NJ | Julia Collin | NJ | Claire Wang | CA |
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[24] 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.[25]
| 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 | |
| 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 | |
| South America | Mexico | Carol Warren Ornelas and Monica Rojas |
See also
References
- ^ Dentistry, University of Maryland School of. "International Brain Bee - University of Maryland School of Dentistry".
- ^ Dentistry, University of Maryland School of. "About the International Brain Bee - University of Maryland School of Dentistry".
- ^ Brain Bee, International. "Organizing Partners".
- ^ Brain Bee, International. "Past Championships".
- ^ Dentistry, University of Maryland School of. "International Brain Bee Champions - University of Maryland School of Dentistry".
- ^ "NZ Brain Bee". Archived from the original on 2014-10-18. Retrieved 2014-10-18.
- ^ "Regional brain bee contest held at PGI - Times of India". The Times of India. 12 January 2014.
- ^ "Somerville House — The Landmark in Girls' Education". Archived from the original on 2014-10-21. Retrieved 2014-10-18.
- ^ "Society for Neuroscience".
- ^ "ibb2016".
- ^ "Brain Bee New Zealand". Facebook.
- ^ "ADInstruments congratulates Australian New Zealand Brain Bee Challenge winners".
- ^ "International Brain Bee – The Neuroscience Competition for Teens" (PDF). thebrainbee.org. Retrieved 2026-01-12.
- ^ Dentistry, University of Maryland School of. "International Brain Bee - University of Maryland School of Dentistry".
- ^ "Ruan wins National Brain Bee". 26 March 2013.
- ^ "News from Gateways East Bay STEM Network".
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Header".
- ^ "School Notes". 10 April 2008 – via washingtonpost.com.
- ^ "Richard Montgomery student wins National Brain Bee". Archived from the original on 2015-05-27. Retrieved 2015-05-26.
- ^ "CWP Press Release Aug 30 2010 - Long Island University".
- ^ "Cate School's Thanh-Liem Huynh-Tran Wins National Brain Bee". 22 March 2011.
- ^ "Missouri teen wins National Brain Bee, will represent U.S. at world championship".
- ^ Dentistry, University of Maryland School of. "International Brain Bee - University of Maryland School of Dentistry".
- ^ "Participating Countries". International Brain Bee. Retrieved March 19, 2026.
External links
- International Brain Bee website: thebrainbee.org