Future neuroscientists from around the world will be meeting in Cape Town, South Africa to compete in the fourteenth International Brain Bee Championship on Sunday, July 22, 2012 in the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
The Brain Bee is a neuroscience competition for young students, 14 to 18 years of age. It will be held in conjunction with the International Congress of Psychology. The competition has three tiers. Worldwide there are about 150 local competitions, each one involving many schools. The winners of the local competitions then compete in their respective national championships. The national winners then go on to represent their countries in the International Championship. They are tested on their knowledge of the human brain including such topics as intelligence, emotions, memory, sleep, vision, hearing, sensation, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, addictions and brain research. The competition involves oral tests, a neuroanatomy laboratory exam with human brains, a neurohistology test with tissue specimens and microscopes, and a patient diagnosis component with student actors. Sample questions include: What kind of molecules are semaphorin, ephrin, neuropilin and plexin?Sonic hedgehog is important for the development of what part of the nervous system? What is the medical term for when you start dreaming before you fall asleep? Stargazer mice are experimental models for which type of epilepsy? The winner will receive $3000, a trophy, and the right to represent the Brain Bee around the world. The competing countries and their representative competitors are as follows:
- Australia: Teresa Tang
- Canada: Laronna Sewell
- Germany: Sofia Amontova
- India: Shivam Sanjay Panchalm
- Italy: Flavio Miorandi
- Kenya:Koki Mutungi
- Korea:To Be Determined
- Malaysia:Ammar B. A. Mokhtar
- New Zealand:Byung Cheol Cho
- Nigeria:Okehie C. Chidera
- Poland:Barbara Nowacka
- Romania:Ionut Flavius Bratu
- Singapore : James Alexander
- United Arab Emirates: Shruti Suresh
- United States of America: Aidan Crank
- Wales: Ann Sebatian
The purpose of the Brain Bee is to motivate young men and women to study the brain, and to inspire them to consider careers in the basic and clinical neurosciences. We need them to treat and find cures for the 1000 neurological and psychological disorders around the world. The International Brain Bee was founded and is directed by Dr. Norbert Myslinski (nmyslinski@umaryland.edu) of The University of Maryland Dental School Department of Neural and Pain Sciences. The primary sponsor of the International Championship is Dr. S. M. Raju. We encourage neuroscientists and educators around the world to start a Brain Bee competition in their cities. It is easy and fun and the media loves it. Visit www.internationalbrainbee.org for more information, or contact Steve Berberich (sber001@umaryland.edu). The Brain Bee Builds Better Brains to Fight Brain Disorders. The National Brain Bee Coordinators for these and other countries are as follows: International Brain Bee; National Coordinators; June, 2012
- Armenia Contact: Arsen Gasparyan (info@yba.am) (yba.ngo@hotmail.com)
- Argentina Coordinator: Cecilia Bouzat (inbouzat@criba.edu.ar)
- Australia Coordinator: Linda Richards (richards@uq.edu.au)
- Bangladesh Coordinator: Muhammad Shahdaat Bin Sayeed (shahdaat.du.001@gmail.com)
- Belgium Coordinator: Julie Maetens (jmaetens@ulb.ac.be) (Pending)
- Brazil Coordinator: Alfred Sholl-Franco (asholl@biof.ufrj.br )
- Cameroon Coordinator: Elisabeth Ngo Bum (eli_bum@yahoo.fr)
- Canadian Coordinator: Judy Shedden (shedden@mcmaster.ca)
- China Coordinator: To Be Determined
- Egyptian Coordinator: Wael Mohamed Yousef (waelpharma@yahoo.co.uk)
- Germany Coordinator: Julianne R McCall (McCall@stud.uni-heidelberg.de)
- Georgia Coordinator: Merab G. Tsagareli (Lost Contact)
- Ghana Coordinator: Kwame Ofori Affram (Lost Contact)
- Grenada Coordinator: Francis A. Fakoya (FFakoya@SGU.EDU)
- Hong Kong Coordinator: Stephanie Auyeung (Stephanie.Auyeung@inet.polyu.edu.hk)
- India Coordinator: RMV Ravindranadh R V (ravirmv@gmail.com)
- Israel Coordinator: Illana Gozes (igozes@post.tau.ac.il)Venezuela
- Italy Coordinator: P. Paolo Battaglini (battagli@units.it)
- Japan Coordinator: Fuji Nagami (f-nagami@med.tohoku.ac.jp)
- Kenya Coordinator: Nchafatso Gikenyi OBONYO (gnchafatso@yahoo.com)
- Korea Coordinator: Seong-Whan Lee (seongwhan_lee@korea.ac.kr)
- Lithuania Coordinator: Corrie Jankeviciene (corrie@novavita.Lt)
- Malaysia Coordinator: Jafri Malin Abdullah (brainsciences@gmail.com)
- Mexico Coordinator: Eric Murillo-Rodriguez (eric.murillo@anahuac.mx)
- New Zealand Coordinator: Louise FB Nicholson (Lfb.nicholson@auckland.ac.nz)
- Nigerian Coordinator: Owolabi Rotini: (rolabi07@Yahoo.com)
- Philippines Coordinator: Homer Villa (Homer.villa@yahoo.com)
- Poland Coordinator: Elzbieta Malgorzata Pyza (elzbieta.pyza@uj.edu.pl)
- Portugal Contact: Cláudia M F Pereira (cpereira@cnc.cj.uc.pt)
- Romania Coordinator: Cristian Gurzu (cristiang2001@yahoo.com)
- Saudi Arabia Coordinator: Rasheed Alameer (alameer.rasheed@gmail.com)
- Scotland Coordinator: Janice Barr (janice.barr@roslin.ed.ac.uk)
- Serbia Contact Person: Milos M. Petrovic (mp011cz@gmail.com)
- Singapore Coordinator: S Thameen Dheen, (thameem_dheen@nuhs.edu.sg)
- Spain Contact: Carlos Belmonte (carlos.belmonte@umh.es)
- Swiss Co-Coordinator: Ruth Luthi-Carter (Ruth.luthi-carter@epfl.ch)
- Turkey Coordinator: Ferhan ESEN (fesen@ogu.edu.tr)
- Uganda Coordinator: Sekabira Wilson (wsekabira@med.mak.ac.ug)
- Ukraine Coordinator: Nana Voitenko (nana@biph.kiev.ua)
- United Arab Emirates Coordinator: Sathy Parvathy (sathyparvathy@gmail.com)
- United Kingdom Coordinator: Jolanta Opacka-Juffry (j.opacka-juffry@roehampton.ac.uk)
- United States Coordinator: Norbert Myslinski (nmyslinski@umaryland.edu)
- Venezuela Coordinator: Gladys Maestre (gladysmaestre@gmail.com)
- Wales Coordinator: Vanessa Davies (daviesvj@Cardiff.ac.uk)
This event is officially sanctioned by The International Brain Bee Ó. All rights reserved. Use of the Brain Bee trademark, [cid:A23D3FEC-A236-43BA-88AA-D53D87F7AD2C] , or the names “Brain Bee” or “International Brain Bee” by Official Brain Bee Chapters is permitted. Use by all others is forbidden without the permission of Norbert Myslinski, 410-706-7258, nmyslinski@umaryland.edu. Norbert Myslinski
