2022 Competitors

Anmol is a junior at Watchung Hills Regional High School in NJ. He first became interested in the brain when he learned how difficult it could be to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He is also a two-time USABO semifinalist, a British Biology Olympiad gold medalist, and a two-time International Medicine Olympiad gold medalist. When he’s not studying biology, he loves playing on his high school’s Varsity Tennis Team and coaching the middle school MathCounts Team. In his free time, he enjoys playing table tennis, singing, and listening to music. Because of the Brain Bee, he has developed an interest in how the brain becomes addicted to substances and hopes to study medicine to help find a cure for those suffering from substance use disorders.

Helene Li is a Grade nine student in the International Baccalaureate program at Merivale High School in Ottawa, Ontario. At school, her favourite subjects are mathematics and biology. In her free time, she plays volleyball and practices the piano. Her interest in neuroscience is rooted deeply in her curiosity about the brain— its complex structure and her desire to discover novel therapies to meet urgent needs and improve the quality of life of many. Preparing for the Brain Bee has helped her grow as a student; she has created a foundation for her future studies in neuroscience and actively sought more efficient studying methods that will certainly guide her for years to come. While studying, she also developed a keen interest in the visual and motor fields of neuroscience. Her dream is to become a neuroscientist. She is in awe of their responsibilities and remarkable contributions to society. Neuroscience research is a greatly expanding field with plentiful research opportunities. According to Open Neuroscience Initiative, more neuroscience studies were published from 2015 to 2020 than in the last seventy years alone! Helene dreams that one day she can contribute to the efforts made by neuroscientists around the world. She is honoured to represent Canada in this once-in-a-lifetime experience at the International Brain Bee 2022. She is also excited to test her neuroscience knowledge alongside her peers who share the same passion and make friends for future years.

Ugne Birstonaite is a 17-year-old high school student attending Vilnius Vytautas Magnus Gymnasium. She first became fascinated by neuroscience after attending a lecture about the lucid dreams phenomenon. Ugne is particularly interested in behavioral neuroscience and molecular biology and, after high school graduation, plans to study biochemistry and later specialize in neuroscience. Degenerative disorders are one of her interests, and she hopes to contribute to their better understanding. Outside of academics, she enjoys listening to music and playing the violin and piano. She is a passionate traveller and dreams of visiting Iceland someday. Ugne is honoured to represent Lithuania at the International Brain Bee and believes this experience will contribute to reaching her goals in science.

Lila Schiaffino is a first year medicine student at University of La Plata. She participated in the Neuroscience Olympics the last two previous years and thanks to that, discovered her passion for the human body and the diseases around it. In her free time she likes listening to music, boxing and playing guitar.

Lila became intrigued by biology a few years ago, thanks to her biology professor and decided to pursue the medicine career.

Her plans for the future are finishing the career in order to become a neurosurgeon.

Jiaxi (Calvin) Zhu is a Year 11 student at Yarra Valley Grammar in Melbourne, Australia. He is a passionate science and mathematics student, which has driven him to grapple with understanding all aspects of the human brain. Calvin has enjoyed applying his skills and knowledge of biology, chemistry and physics to the multi-disciplinary challenges presented in the area of neuroscience. He has also enthusiastically sought to encourage younger students to accept the challenge of studying what is one of, if not the most, complex components of the universe. Calvin is hoping to pursue a career in neuroscience, with interests in both the research and surgical fields. In his spare time, when he is not studying for examinations and the Brain Bee, he is relaxing by following basketball and listening to piano music. Calvin is thankful for the opportunity to be representing his school and country on the international stage.

Ian is a 17-year-old high school student attending Colégio Etapa. Since he was a kid he wanted to be a neurologist, always being interested with the neurosciences and all the possibilities that are proportioned by it. Ian intends to attend a med school, specializing in neurology, more precisely in in degenerative diseases, since he believes that is a field able to help people all around the world.

Besides neurosciences, Ian is interested in sports and technology. He is a basketball player and a gym enthusiast, and loves to play videogames in his free time. Also, Ian believes that the International Brain Bee is an opportunity to enter the neurosciences world, and a great opportunity to meet people that have the same interests as him.

Helene Li is a Grade nine student in the International Baccalaureate program at Merivale High School in Ottawa, Ontario. At school, her favourite subjects are mathematics and biology. In her free time, she plays volleyball and practices the piano. Her interest in neuroscience is rooted deeply in her curiosity about the brain— its complex structure and her desire to discover novel therapies to meet urgent needs and improve the quality of life of many. Preparing for the Brain Bee has helped her grow as a student; she has created a foundation for her future studies in neuroscience and actively sought more efficient studying methods that will certainly guide her for years to come. While studying, she also developed a keen interest in the visual and motor fields of neuroscience. Her dream is to become a neuroscientist. She is in awe of their responsibilities and remarkable contributions to society. Neuroscience research is a greatly expanding field with plentiful research opportunities. According to Open Neuroscience Initiative, more neuroscience studies were published from 2015 to 2020 than in the last seventy years alone! Helene dreams that one day she can contribute to the efforts made by neuroscientists around the world. She is honoured to represent Canada in this once-in-a-lifetime experience at the International Brain Bee 2022. She is also excited to test her neuroscience knowledge alongside her peers who share the same passion and make friends for future years.

Sofia Fothergill is an 11th year student at The International School La Serena, Chile. She had always found the brain to be one of the most fascinating organs, therefore she was thrilled to be exposed to a competition about it. Planning to pursue a career in the medical field, she hopes to be of inspiration for future generations in her country. She believes this happens to be the ideal opportunity to meet people who are as fond of the human body as she is. Her interests are mostly STEM related, though, she absolutely adores dancing. Her main goal in life is to be able to make a difference and help those in need, and she strongly believes this competition will help her fulfill those dreams.

Yingying Gong recently graduated from Nanjing Foreign Language School. She followed standard Chinese curriculum for 12 years and will receive higher education in the US. Curious about the consciousness and mentality, she delved into neuroscience, philosophy and computer science. She is extremely fascinated about how different subjects collaborate to uncover the mystery of how consciousness evolves. Yingying was always impressed by science as the embodiment of human rationality, but she suddenly wondered the validity of scientific reasoning, the induction in particular, when she walked out of a chemistry laboratory 2 years ago. Then she began to study history and philosophy of science to examine the foundation and evolution of science. Also, she read books and wrote paper in bioethics and medical ethics to understand the responsibilities of scientists and reflect on latent problems born by new technology. Moreover, Yingying likes to spread knowledge and help others. She co-founded Emergency Club and led Chemistry and Life Club in high school, holding seminars on crystal-field theory and training classes on CPR. She loved a verse from a poem by Shi Su,”Life is like Epherma in the world, a drop in the sea.” Individual life is limited, but the exploration by human always continues. Yingying feels honored to represent China at the International Brain Bee, a very beginning yet a milestone of her exploration of the brain.

Ana Karla Vodanović is an 8th-grade student at Matija Gubec Primary school in Zagreb. She has been interested in medicine and neuroscience since 5th grade, participating in the National Brain Bee for the last two years. Beyond neuroscience, she is passionate about maths, chemistry, debate, and reading all kinds of books, especially fantasy and science fiction ones. In her free time, she trains and competes in fencing. She hopes to have a career in neurosurgery one day.

Salma Badr is 11th grade student. Salma started searching for her passion by participating in many competitions and self learning, from learning the space to discovering her own horizon inside her; the nervous system! By joining Brain Bee, neuroscience has amazed her, especially reading about brain function and consciousness. Salma seeks to continue her life in researchering about NS and hard problem of conssesnious. Besides academic career, Salma is interested in drawing, reading and learning new skills. Her nearest goals -aside from science career- she is willing to master learning German and some computer skills.

Alexandre Ravel is a graduating senior at Ecole Jeannine Manuel in Paris, France. Currently, his favorite subjects are biochemistry, linguistics, and developmental biology. Alex hopes to conduct research on cures for Type 1 Diabetes and DIPG as a medical doctor one day. He became curious about neuroscience while preparing for his first Brain Bee in 2019. In particular, he was fascinated by the huge potential neuroscience could have beyond the medical field as in philosophy and sociology. He founded a club at his school to explore these areas with his classmates. In addition to his scientific interests, Alex loves diving into a broad range of subjects in his free time ranging from learning languages such as Polish and Finnish and composing electronic music to reading about Manchu history. He is also an avid traveler and loves hiking through alpine forests and snowfields. Alex is honored and excited to represent France at the 2022 International Brain Bee.

Anya Zhu is a 16-year-old student attending year 12 at the Internat Solling in Holzminden, Germany. She loves everything complex and challenging and has found a perfect match in the field of neuroscience – with so much being unexplored and undiscovered yet.

Only recently, after changing to boarding school one year ago, has she begun participating in science competitions which have brought her a lot of enrichment opportunities and, above all, the important chance to meet others sharing her interest and engagement in science (the former, eventually, skyrocketed), encouraging her to dream of a career in scientific research. Apart from this, she also enjoys classical literature, music and kickboxing. She is rather surprised to have ended up making it to the international level of the Brain Bee and regards this as another invaluable possibility to broaden her horizon.

Yasmin Muftawu Jawula is a 17-year-old Muslim girl who comes from the Savannah region of Ghana. She is a student at Galaxy International School, Accra, and is currently in her final year, studying General Science, which is no surprise at all since she has shown great interest in science from her childhood. It is still in fact, her favorite area of study as at now. She is the co-leader of the Students Representative Council at her school and loves this job very much. She lives in Accra and has had all her education there. She is the third of four children to her parents who are both Ghanaians as well.

Yasmin is participating in the International Brain Bee Competition for the first time after winning the national competition in 2021. She loves to read and watch movies in her free time. She also enjoys visiting the beach and places of greenery. She loves to write poems as a way of expressing herself. Generally, she is an outgoing person who loves having productive conversations with anyone she comes across. She aspires to be a medical doctor in the future.

Rémi Fraisse is a 17 year old male who attends Presentation Brothers’ College. He has a passion for Science and Geography. He is a hardworking determined intellectual youth representing the small island of Grenada in the Caribbean. His goal is to attain international glory in the International Brain Bee Competition.

Brian is a 16-year-old student at La Salle College in Hong Kong. From his local train network to the arrangement of galaxies, complex systems have captivated Brian since his formative years. This, combined with his quest to understand the human condition, has led him to venture into the world of neuroscience. In particular, he is fascinated by the use of medicine and technology to cure neurological diseases.

Outside Brain Bee, Brian often partakes in other science competitions. He is the reigning champion of the International Biology Olympiad – Hong Kong Contest and has won numerous medals in informatics and linguistics. In his spare time, Brian enjoys listening to Cantopop and J-pop; he also loves discussing philology and calligraphy with his friends. One particular hobby of his is numismatics: in the past five years, by coin-swapping with people across the world, he has amassed a collection of over 1,400 coins from 174 countries. While Brian is yet to decide on his career path, it is his fervent desire to advance the frontiers of knowledge and, eventually, use it for the benefit of mankind.

Lawson Richard Hanh is a 17-year-old student studying at Fazekas Mihály Primary and Secondary Grammar School of Budapest. Richard has long been fascinated by topics from cell biology, molecular biology, biochemistry and neuroscience. In the past year Richard has had the chance to work in a neurobiology laboratory, where among other things he learned how to isolate hippocampi of mice. Outside of the laboratory and school he also likes to experiment at home by himself. For example he has once tried extracting DNA from bananas and building a gel electrophoresis machine to separate the fragments by size.

Seyed Ali Mousavi is a 11th student at Shahid Soltani 4 high school. At the age of 14, his passion for neuroscience peaked when he realized that a person’s feelings, beliefs, behaviors, attitudes… are entirely originated from his nervous system. In his spare time, he loves reading books, mostly related to science, philosophy and history. His other interests include neorealist cinema (like Fellini’s films), jazz (especially a Gershwin or Ellington tune) and guitar (Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton).

Olivia is a 13-year-old student in 1st year at Mercy College Sligo, Ireland. Her favorite subjects are science and maths, and over the last few years, she has developed an interest in neuroscience and how the brain works, with a particular interest in brain disorders. Olivia enjoys reading, drawing, baking, and playing the piano in her free time. She also likes to play basketball, swim, and play tennis.

Olivia believes that the International Brain Bee competition is an opportunity to learn more about the nervous system and could be the first step to a career as a researcher in the neuroscience field. She is very grateful for this opportunity and aspires to one day make a notable contribution to neuroscience.

Darya is an 18-year-old undergraduate (studying Biology) at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She was first exposed to the world of neuroscience at the age of 14, through a 3-years Neuroscience program for youth, at the Weitzman Institute of Science. Darya was fascinated about the topic and found deep interest in neurodegenerative diseases and psychiatric disorders! Besides science, she accomplishes great joy by playing the piano, clarinet, guitar and ukulele! She loves learning new languages, and enjoys writing poems and short stories which she (sometimes) reads to her family and friends. Darya aims to continue building her academic career, majoring in brain science. This way, with a lot of hard work and huge passion she could make her dreams come true and contribute to the scientific community.

Isabella Cristina Bertolami Adrianza is a 18-year-old student attending the fourth year of high school at the scientific-linguistic high school Pietro Metastasio. She is a Venezuelan girl that migrated to Italy almost three years ago, where she had the opportunity to get into the study of neuroscience. Now, she wants to become a researcher to expand our knowledge about the human brain, since only by its understanding we can improve our coexistence. Isabella enjoy reading, listening to music and spending time with the people she loves. Winning the national round of the Brain Bee in Italy inspired her to continue to pursue her dreams and allowed her to meet incredible people. So she hopes that this too will be an experience that will make her grow as a person and will extend her notions.

Hayato Nakagawa is a 12th-grade student at Tennoji Senior High School attached to Osaka Kyoiku University in Japan. His grandfather’s illness triggered his exploration of neuroscience. In his first year of high school, he enrolled in a science exploration program at Osaka University to help him learn about his grandfather’s disease. In his second year of high school, he was assigned to a university laboratory where he analyzed “the effects of visual information processing disorder on brain function and other senses.” The research taught him that “blindness” is not a “deficiency,” but rather a new door opening in the brain. He was very impressed that “absence” could trigger the expression of new or dormant genes. In the future, he hopes to elucidate the mechanisms of developing intractable neurological diseases and develop treatments for them.

He enjoys listening to music and playing the piano in his spare time. He has won the Minister of Education Award in a national robotics competition. He is also interested in BMI (Brain Machine Interface) research.

Last year, he developed an “international perspective” by taking six months of lectures online at Stanford University’s Cross-Cultural Program. He looks forward to meeting companions from around the world at the International Brain Bee 2022.

Huberts is an eighteen year old, recently from Rezekne State gymnasium No.1. graduated high school student, who is really keen on different sciences, history and languages, but particularly he adores biology and all of its transcendentally broad spectrum of the research field – how different kinds of life forms functions internally – their anatomy, physiology, citology – and externally – sub-species relationships and ecological structures. For him some of the most interesting sub-spheres in biology are neurology, neuroanatomy and psychiatry, because they bring broad information about one of the most important organisms’ self-control systems which is crucial for understanding the mechanisms of other biological systems. He also loves animals – especially cats, snakes and chickens- and he likes reading books, listening to music, as well playing the piano and organ. Huberts thinks that the participation in this olympiad will be a great experience and will bring him a lot of new opportunities!

Ugne Birstonaite is a 17-year-old high school student attending Vilnius Vytautas Magnus Gymnasium. She first became fascinated by neuroscience after attending a lecture about the lucid dreams phenomenon. Ugne is particularly interested in behavioral neuroscience and molecular biology and, after high school graduation, plans to study biochemistry and later specialize in neuroscience. Degenerative disorders are one of her interests, and she hopes to contribute to their better understanding. Outside of academics, she enjoys listening to music and playing the violin and piano. She is a passionate traveller and dreams of visiting Iceland someday. Ugne is honoured to represent Lithuania at the International Brain Bee and believes this experience will contribute to reaching her goals in science.

Kam Soi Io is a 17 years old boy studying in Instituto Salesiano, a catholic school in Macau. Kam has a very sharp knack for Biology and Chemistry. He always brings focused energy to class and makes outstanding progress in his academic and personal pursuits. He loves to do self-research and readings outside classroom. In addition to Biology and Chemistry, Kam also enjoys playing the piano and clarinet and listening to various types of music. In the future, he plans to study pharmacy in order to learn the effects of drugs. Brain Bee introduced Kam to the world of neuroscience, he is honored to participate in IBB as a representative of Macau and looking forward to learning from many talented people from all around the world.

Neesta Bhandari, 18 years old student of Gomendra BIrtamodel Secondary School from beautiful country Nepal. Being nature loving girl gardening is her hobby along with learning new things. She had actively participated in most of the quizzes and speech programme during schooling .Curious nature unknowingly make her interested towards neuroanatomy after noticing tremors in her grandfather and few neuro abnormalities in children habituated around her society. In developing country like Nepal, she noticed research in neuroanatomy as appropriate platform to meet her all enthusiasm and curiosity. so. she determined to explore the world of neuroanatomy and make an impact to give vision about neuroanatomy to her country as well as to the world.

June is 17-years old and has just finished her finals at the Veenlandencollege in the Netherlands. In her spare time she likes to play soccer, bake, read books and learn foreign languages. She is also interested in a wide range of subjects including engineering, linguistics, psychology and biology. Consequently because of her many interests she still isn’t sure what she wants to study. She is very excited to participate in the International Brain Bee and hopes the competition might give her some clarity.

Chosen Amaechi has a great passion for the natural sciences. This is demonstrated by his desire to always see everyone happy and lends credence to his love for biology. His extraordinary ability to apply higher order thinking skills constantly challenges his teachers to work harder in preparation for his barrage of questions. He was born to the family of Mr. and Mrs Chibuzor Amaechi and hail from Isu in Nwangele Local Government Area of Imo State, Nigeria. He attended Margdave best legacy primary school at Ikorodu in Lagos State, Nigeria and currently attend Ruth Model Secondary School Umuguma Owerri west, Imo State for my secondary school education. His hobbies include playing football, reading, and listening to music. Everyone keeps dreams and aspirations in life and his goal is to have a career as a Doctor. This will bring to him a sense of fulfillment, as he desires to contribute towards making Nigeria a medical hub of excellence in Africa and the rest of the world.

Dominika Sawicka is an 18-year-old student attending IB Diploma Programme at III LO im. Marynarki Wojennej RP in Gdynia, Poland. Since primary school Dominika was interested in biology and in high school she decided to focus on neuroscience. This field of biology was completely new to her but once she started learning about the human brain, neuroscience has become her passion. She aspires to study medicine and become a successful neurosurgeon in the future. In addition to science, Dominika trains kitesurfing in national team and competes in championships on international level. Finding balance between studying and sport is very important in her life. Sport has taught her self-discipline, perseverance, and time management and she uses these skills to pursue her academic goals. Dominika is an ambitious person and is eager to work hard to fulfill her dreams. In her spare time, she enjoys reading, playing the violin, and traveling.

Elisa is in 11th grade and she is currently studying at National College “Gheorghe Lazăr. She discovered her passion for the brain in the 6th grade when she read the amazing story of Ben Carson a world-renowned neurosurgeon. She is also the president of the Walter E. Dandy Club Romania, a club dedicated to neuroscience for high schoolers where every month they invite leaders in the field. In addition to her studies, she is also passionate about medicine, volunteering, going out with friends, cosmology, and art. One of her favorite activities is to do medical shadowing experiences where she interacts with patients and different specialties such as cardiology, oncology, and neurosurgery. She is also a part of the Aspire Community dedicated to leadership and now she is very fascinated by research, especially on cancer. People often characterize her as intelligent, funny, and a good friend and one interesting thing about her is that she loves Balkan party music and old movies.

Yurim is currently an 18 year old, who goes to Korean Minjok Leadership Academy. Her main hobby is reading, writing, and playing music. During COVID, she spent most of her time reading through books in her room, and learned a whole lot about the world. From then on, she always tried to seek new knowledge and learn from it. Her interest in brain science started from middle school, and is currently developing. Another favorite hobby is music. She has various talents such as playing the violin,piano, flute and even the drum!

Unlike fellow teenagers, she genuinely likes studying. Listening to rigorous courses and living a busy life is a true enjoyment for her. She wants to be a student who knows how to criticize and doubt, not just blindly accepting knowledge. That is why she wishes to study the brain, because there are so many things yet to be discovered, and the brian is indeed the source of our uniqueness. The more she gets to know about the human brain, she gets more and more mesmerized by its ability and mysterious functions. One day, she dreams of being a neuroscientist who unveils the secrets of the human brain.