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Press Release: USA Brain Bee Championship Winner
(Building Better Brains to Fight Brain Disorders)
Department of Neural and Pain Sciences
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Baltimore, Maryland, USA
March 22, 2015
After two days of intense competition, the 2015 USA National Brain Bee Champion is Soren
Christensen representing the Washington, DC Chapter. The Brain Bee is a neuroscience
competition for high school students. A record fifty-two regional winners from around the country
competed at the University of Maryland, Baltimore on March 20th and 21th of Brain Awareness
Week.
Soren is a Freshman at Thomas Jefferson High School. He won a scholarship, a summer
internship at a neuroscience lab, trophies for his school and himself, and the right to represent the
United States at the Sixteenth International Brain Bee Championship in Cairns, Australia in August.
The Brain Bee tests a student’s knowledge of the human brain, including such topics as
intelligence, emotions, memory, sleep, vision, hearing, sensations, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s
disease, autism, schizophrenia, addictions, brain research and many others. The USA Championship
competition involves a neuroanatomy laboratory practical exam with real human brains, patient
diagnosis involving face-to-face interactions with patient actors, MRI brain imaging analysis, brain
histology with microscopes, and a final question and answer component with judges. Some examples
of the final questions include: The amygdala is important for what kind of memory? (Answer:
Emotional memory) Name the part of the brain known as its clock or pace-maker. (Answer: The
suprachiasmatic nucleus). The inheritance of what variation of the apolipoprotein E gene is a risk
factor for Alzheimer’s disease? (Answer: ApoE 4).
To advance to the USA Championship, Adam had to win the Washington, DC Regional Brain Bee
Competition coordinated by Emily Dilger of the Society for Neuroscience. Soren will now advance to
compete in the International Championships hosted by the International Society for Neurochemistry,
the Australian Neuroscience Society and the Asian-Pacific Society for Neurochemistry. Soren will be
competing against other national champions from such countries as Australia, Brazil, Canada, China,
Germany, India, Italy, Kenya, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Romania, Singapore, Turkey, Ukraine,
United Arab Emirates, and others.
The International Brain Bee was founded 16 years ago by Dr. Norbert Myslinski. His
organization has expanded to 150 chapters in 30 countries in 6 continents. Its purpose is “to motivate
young men and women to learn about the brain, and inspire them to consider careers in basic and
clinical neurosciences.” He says “We need them to treat and find cures for the more than 1000
neurological and psychological disorders including Alzheimer’s, Autism, and Addictions.”
For
more
information,
visit
www.internationalbrainbee.com
or
contact
[email protected] or [email protected].
2015 USA NATIONAL BRAIN BEE CHAMPIONSHIP
RESULTS AND RANKING OF WINNERS
#
ST
10
16
18
2
8
41
33
26
4
52
27
19
7
42
47
51
34
32
48
28
1
29
45
39
6
25
43
40
17
11
15
50
5
DC
IN
MA
AL
CA
OH
NJ
MI
AZ
CITY
Washington
Indianapolis
Boston
Birmingham
Stanford
Granville
Piscataway
Mount Pleasant
Glendale
NSF Various
MN Minneapolis
MA Worcester
CA San Diego
OH Rootstown
RI
Providence
WA Seattle
NJ Waldwick
NJ Newark
TX Dallas
MO St. Louis
AK Anchorage
MT Missoula
PA Pittsburgh
NY New York
CA Los Angeles
MI
East Lansing
PA Hershey
NY White Plains
KS Kansas City
DE Dover
IL
Chicago
VT Burlington
CA Hayward
WINNER
Soren Christensen
Michaela Breach
Abhijeet Sambangi
Rahul Lall
Courtney Lau
Debolina Ghosh
Roger Jin
Henry Armah
Vijay Nambi
Varun Jain
Vansh Jain
Snigdha Allaparthi
Stephanie Hu
Shankar Pattabhiraman
Sarah Pugliese
Max Murin
Akshay Swaminathan
Ronald Wang
Christine Ji
Rounak Bera
Bailey Fuller
Kit Fieldhouse
Zachary M. Finder
Mary Zhuo Ke
Shriraj Susarla
Amy Li
Sareena Fayaz
Alice Xue
Debolina Kanjilal
Sriram Cyr
Ankush Bajaj
Lyn Ackert-Smith
Harim Lee
HIGH SCHOOL
RANK
Thomas Jefferson High School
Fishers High School
Pingree High School
Auburn High School
Stanford On-Line School
Hathaway Brown High School
West Windsor-Plainsboro HS
Sacred Heart Academy
Basis Scottsdale High School
Monte Vista High School
Lakeland Union High School
Lexington High School
Torrey Pines High School
New Albany High School
North Smithfield High School
Lakeside High School
Bergen County Academies
West Windsor Plainsboro HS
The Hockaday School
Lindbergh High School
Robert Service High School
Hellgate High School
Taylor Allderdice High School
Cathedral High School
Whitney High School
Troy High School
Hershey High School
Westchester High School
Blue Valley West High School
Charter School of Wilmington
Hindsdale Central HS
Mount Abraham Union HS
Lynbrook High School
1
2T
2T
3
4
5
6
7
8T
8T
9
10
11
12
13T
13T
14
15T
15T
16
17T
17T
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25T
25T
26
27
21
35
20
3
49
44
12
9
22
23
30
38
31
13
37
14
36
46
24
MD
NJ
MD
AR
TX
PA
FL
CT
MD
ME
NC
NY
ND
GA
NV
IA
NM
PA
ME
Greenspring
Stratford
Baltimore
Jefferson
San Antonio
Philadelphia
Tallahassee
Hartford
St. Mary’s City
Biddeford
Durham
Buffalo
Minot
Atlanta
Las Vegas
Iowa City
Albuquerque
Scranton
Presque Isle
Natalia Stepanova
Adam Persello
Jennifer MacDonald
Chen-Bo Fang
Rohan Robinson
Sara Gormley
Michael Hong
Trajan Murphy
Gabrielle Voithofer
Jillian Sheltra
Aashi Pal
Sarah Wie
Hallie Tranby
Pranav Prabu
Liliveth Nunez
Alicia Hayes-Kerr
Alayna Barela
Brittany Thomas
Marta Herzog
Richard Montgomery HS
Egg Harbor Township HS
Eastern Technical HS
Little Rock Central HS
Klein High School
Bensalem Township HS
Lawton Chiles High School
Sci. & Tech. Magnet School
Leonardtown High School
Biddeford High School
Raleigh Charter HS
Williamsville East HS
Des Lacs Burlington HS
Chattahoochee High School
East Technical Academy
Kennedy High School
Taos High School
Wyoming Artea High School
Presque Isle High School
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35T
35T
36
37
38
39
40T
40T
41T
41T
42
43
2015 USA CHAPTER WINNERS NOT ABLE TO ATTEND THE NATIONALS
CA
NH
NC
MD
Los Angeles
Hanover
Durham
Columbia
Arjun Srivatsa
Anthony Spinella
Vamsi Varanasi
Katie Gao
Clovis North High School
Chelsea High School
William G. Enloe High School
Centennial High School