Which of these brainy high school students will be tomorrow’s neuroscientists?


High school students from across Canada will converge on McMaster University Saturday, May 28th, 2016, to compete for the right to be called the best brain in Canada.

The students, all winners of their regional competitions, will be tested on their knowledge of neuroscience and their skills at patient diagnosis and neuroanatomy. Topics will cover memory, sleep, intelligence, emotion, perception, stress, aging, brain-imaging, neurology, neurotransmitters, genetics and brain disease.

Regional Brain Bee competitions took place earlier this year in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, London, Waterloo, Guelph, Hamilton, Toronto, Kingston, Ottawa, Montreal, and Newfoundland and Labrador.

Dr. Judith Shedden, associate professor in McMaster’s Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour, is chair of the CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee Committee. Shedden says “The goal of the Brain Bee is to reach out to our extended communities to share what we are doing in our laboratories, and to encourage these outstanding high school students to consider a career in neuroscience, one of the great frontiers of scientific research”.

The CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee is supported nationally by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).

“The CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee provides a fantastic opportunity to stimulate interest and excitement about brain research,” says Dr. Anthony Phillips, Scientific Director for CIHR’s Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction. “CIHR is proud to once again support this championship, which allows some of Canada’s brightest young minds to gather and measure their knowledge.”

Winners will receive trophies and scholarship awards of $1,500, $1,000 and $500. The first-place winner will win an internship in a neuroscience laboratory, and will represent Canada at the International Brain Bee in July, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

More information can be found at http://www.brainbee.ca.

McMaster University, one of four Canadian universities listed among the Top 100 universities in the world, is renowned for its innovation in both learning and discovery. It has a student population of 23,000, and more than 156,000 alumni in 140 countries.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada’s health research investment agency. CIHR’s mission is to create new scientific knowledge and to enable its translation into improved health, more effective health services and products, and a strengthened health care system for Canadians. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to more than 13,200 health researchers and trainees across Canada.