Yu Cheng is a 17-year-old Form 5 student from Malaysia. He is a self-proclaimed autodidact and an environmentalist. Being concerned about the criminal justice system and ethics, he has been led to explore the link between consciousness and moral culpability, hence foraying into neuroscience. His interests however mainly lie in physics and mathematics. He would hope to witness intergalactic travel in his lifetime. Also, he aspires to share his study notes and his journey as an autodidact: all the wrong turns he has taken and all the right choices he has made. When not studying, Yu Cheng enjoys photographing flora and fauna for iNaturalist. Besides, he would think of new ways to reduce his family’s carbon footprint and to implement a sustainable diet, touting the power of egg tofu. He is eagerly waiting to conquer Mount Tahan (Gunung Tahan) at the Pahang National Park (Taman Negara) in Malaysia. He spends his personal time philosophizing about life: he believes that life is a journey of solving problems and living honestly. All in all his motto is, live with love, burn with passion, hug trees.

Rahil Patel is an eleventh-grade student at Upper Merion Area High School. He is especially interested in the fields of biology and neuroscience. His passion for neuroscience was sparked by learning about the various disorders of the nervous system and challenges they can present. He further explored his interest by competing in the Brain Bee and attending the Advanced Medical Neuroscience Internship at Georgetown University, where he loved seeing the practical and ethical dimensions of the field.  He is fascinated by the complex aspects of the nervous system like consciousness and the questions they create. Rahil hopes to study the field of neuroscience more in the future and apply his knowledge. In his free time, Rahil likes to run as part of his school track team as well as watch sports. He also enjoys helping his community through various projects such as organizing a food drive for the local community food bank. Rahil is honored and excited to represent the United States in this competition.

Peter Susanto, 15 years old, is a Year 12 student at Haileybury Rendall School in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. He has broad interests in various subjects and works hard to achieve his goals. Peter loves challenges; thus, when he was introduced to the Brain Bee, Peter was intrigued by the mysteries and complexities of the brain. Peter realised that by understanding how the brain works, he can contribute to the process of unravelling humanity’s enigmas. His desire is to make a difference in this world by pursuing his aspiration in medicine. Peter sees his participation in the International Brain Bee as a stepping stone to achieve his dream of being a doctor and an opportunity to interact with other participants from around the world.

Jerónimo Rodríguez Cuello is a 19-year-old student attending Universidad Favaloro in Ciudad de Autonoma de Buenos Aires. He has been passionate about behavior since High School and is now studying psychology with a neuroscience perspective. His main interests are emotions and language. Apart from college, he really enjoys reading about psychology, neuroscience and philosophy of mind, as well as physics, sociology and biology. In his free time, he also plays basketball at Club Comunicaciones and is learning to program in Python. He is absolutely excited about International Brain Bee experience because of the high-level competition and the learning environment.

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.

Peter Susanto, 15 years old, is a Year 12 student at Haileybury Rendall School in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. He has broad interests in various subjects and works hard to achieve his goals. Peter loves challenges; thus, when he was introduced to the Brain Bee, Peter was intrigued by the mysteries and complexities of the brain. Peter realised that by understanding how the brain works, he can contribute to the process of unravelling humanity’s enigmas. His desire is to make a difference in this world by pursuing his aspiration in medicine. Peter sees his participation in the International Brain Bee as a stepping stone to achieve his dream of being a doctor and an opportunity to interact with other participants from around the world.

João Vignola De Carlo was born on September 24th, 2003, son of Maria Claudia and Raul, brother of Lucas and Juliana. After three years entirely devoted by his mother for parenting duties, he enrolled in the Kindergarten, in 2006, taking the first steps into what would later develop into his academic life.  

At the age of 7 João enrolled in Santa Maria School, where he would spend the rest of his school years. There he made the greater number of his friends, some of whom have been accompanying him for more than 10 years now, and also met the Teachers and Counselors that would inspire him for the rest of his life. In his path, he developed a special interest for the Natural Sciences, even though he would never dismiss a good History class.  

Multiple were the ideas João had for his future throughout the years: Astronaut, Commercial Pilot and even Aerospace Engineer. However, it was not until 2020 that he was introduced by his High School Counselor to the Neurosciences studies through the enrollment in the IBB preparation. Ever since, João has been nourishing strong aspirations for Med School, in his desire for studying and comprehending not only the human brain, but the whole integration of human systems, in order to help other people.  

Now, at the age of 18, João is preparing to enter the university world which raises the question: what is going to happen next? Well, we look forward to seeing that.

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.

Ruoqi Yuan won the Brain Bee 2020 champion of China in her 11th grade at Shenzhen Middle School. She is currently a first-year undergraduate doing Biochemistry in the University of Oxford. Neuroscience was a stranger to her until last year, the Brain Bee competition introduces her to this insightful field of study. Since then, in addition to her usual fondness for sports, music, games and anime, she would also have fun browsing through brain slices when she was in high spirits.  

Ziad Ayman Hamad is a freshman at Faculty of Medicine – Helwan University, a STEM Ismailia Graduate, and a Biology enthusiast. His passion to biology led him to neuroscience which at first was an intriguing subject to him, and after going deep in this subject it started revealing its secrets to him which was amazing. He’s always excited to learn more about the human’s brain secrets. In his free time, he enjoys reading, video editing, and spending time with my family. At last, He’s completely honored to represent Egypt in 2020 International Brain Bee Competition.

Alexis is 18, and he is currently going through his first year of medical school in Clermont-Ferrand, a city located in the middle of France. To him, this course choice shows his passion and interest for sciences, and more specifically sciences guided towards the human body! Aside from that, he definitely enjoys things from the everyday-life, such as hanging out with friends, going to the movie theater, going shopping, and tons of other things. He doesn’t particularly practice any sport, though he dances on a daily-basis. He also loves creating artistic content, such as short video clips or photos showcasing different kinds of makeup for example! Parts of those things may explain why some of his friends call him extravagant! He is very extroverted and isn’t afraid to speak his mind or stand for what he thinks is right! In conclusion, Alexis legitimately cannot wait to share some amazing moments with all the other participants! Even though it’s a competition, the participants are also here to have fun and learn more about each other, and that’s what he is the most excited about!

Krupa Poria is a Year 12 student at Lise-Meitner Gymansium Unterhaching in Munich, Germany. Her interest in science was fostered by her dad who introduced her to science magazines at a young age. Since then her love for physics, chemistry and biology has only grown. Krupa became interested in the brain after reading an article about how strokes can cause different aphasias. This led to her participating in the 2020 German Brain Bee. She was also given the opportunity to attend the NeuroCamp summer school, where she learnt more about how induced pluripotent stem cells are being used in on-going studies about the blood-brain-barrier. Krupa plans to study medicine in the future, not only because she is fascinated by the brain and the human body, but also because she wants to give back to the community and be part of something that can positively impact the lives of others. In her spare time Krupa enjoys reading, drawing, dancing and taking long walks with her family. Krupa is excited to participate in the IBB and meet like-minded competitors from around the globe.

S.G. PRAVEENA SUNSREE has completed her 12th grade from Senior Secondary School, Chennai. She has a great passion towards science particularly biology and the field of medicine. She wishes to learn and discover mysteries of the human body which according to her is a never-ending puzzle. She aspires to become a doctor in the future as she feels it would give her an opportunity to serve a greater part of the society. She developed an interest towards neuroscience especially cognitive intelligence while preparing for the brain bee competitions. She feels one can understand oneself better by knowing about the working of the super organ ‘brain‘.  She is also a public speaker and has participated and won several prizes in oratorical and debate competitions conducted across the region. Her other interests include reading books particularly Tamil literatures and doing yoga which she feels is essential to get a balance between body and mind. She loves to explore the world by learning new skills and gaining new knowledge. She is excited to be part of IBB and wishes to gain new experience from it.

Ehsan Rezaei Moghadam is in the twelfth grade in Darolfonoon school. A poster in his school made him familiar with the Brain Bee competition and then he became familiar with Neuroscience. With great effort, he became the championship of Brain Bee in his country. Besides, he loves business. He also enjoys rock music. He loves Persian food as much as he loves Italian. His dream is to become the Brain Bee’s world champion.

Muhammad Wattad, born in Jatt village, is a highly educated person and an avid reader, hard-working as well as committed, always willing to invest every effort to reach extraordinary results. It is not surprising, therefore, that he has distinguished himself as the top scorer of his grade at Al-Qasemi High School, a prestigious school to which students with stellar achievements and extraordinary personalities are admitted after passing an entrance exam. Muhammad is an enthusiastic volunteer. He volunteered in different hospitals, youth movements, and social activities. He is so thankful that he accidently got to know about the Brain Bee. Neuroscience turned to be vehemently interesting for Muhammad seeing that a lot of work is yet to be done. He is considering admitting medical school and willing to become a great neurosurgeon, hoping to remarkably contribute to the field.

Yu Cheng is a 17-year-old Form 5 student from Malaysia. He is a self-proclaimed autodidact and an environmentalist. Being concerned about the criminal justice system and ethics, he has been led to explore the link between consciousness and moral culpability, hence foraying into neuroscience. His interests however mainly lie in physics and mathematics. He would hope to witness intergalactic travel in his lifetime. Also, he aspires to share his study notes and his journey as an autodidact: all the wrong turns he has taken and all the right choices he has made. When not studying, Yu Cheng enjoys photographing flora and fauna for iNaturalist. Besides, he would think of new ways to reduce his family’s carbon footprint and to implement a sustainable diet, touting the power of egg tofu. He is eagerly waiting to conquer Mount Tahan (Gunung Tahan) at the Pahang National Park (Taman Negara) in Malaysia. He spends his personal time philosophizing about life: he believes that life is a journey of solving problems and living honestly. All in all his motto is, live with love, burn with passion, hug trees.

Awahan Sapkota is a high school student from St. Xavier’s Maitighar Campus, Nepal. He has a deep interest in biology and neuroscience. He was motivated to explore these fields when he saw the pain inside people due to diseases. As a result, he wants to engage himself in research to contribute to the efficient diagnosis and treatment of diseases. Furthermore, he wants to understand disease progression as well as biomarkers and drug targets for neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, utilizing bioinformatics and AI. Participating in the “Advanced Neuroscience Medical Internships,” he was able to extend his interest in neuroscience, whereby he got the opportunity to link neuroscience with medicine, law, ethics, and psychology. Besides these, he is involved in the STEM Ambassador Program where he is working to generate interest in STEM in middle school students in remote areas of Nepal. In his free time, he is busy hiking the beautiful green hills of Nepal.

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.

Kai lives in New Zealand. He picked up many small hobbies such as origami, cardistry but mostly he’s been playing the flute and tennis for around 5 years. Currently he has an intense interest in music, mainly kpop, especially due to the dances that hooked him into them. His current goals are to get through this final year of high school and be able to get into Med school to pursue his dream of working in the medical world.

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.

Azamat Sibgatullin studies in high school at IT Lyceum of KFU. He is fond of chemistry and biology. He wants to become a doctor and open his own clinic. He studied neural interfaces and carried out a project on processing information from the brain. Therefore, he started studying neuroscience and decided to connect his life with this area. He learned about the IBB and decided to participate as it is a great experience and an amazing opportunity to meet new acquaintances.

Aryan Notani is a 12th grade Student at Learning Unlimited Preparatory School in Sint Maarten. His favorite subjects in school are biology, health sciences, public health, graphic design, and robotics. He has always been interested in science, particularly the human body, and aspires to be a physiotherapist when he grows up. He is also interested in neuroscience and during his preparation for the National Brain Bee, he was fascinated to learn so many things about the brain. Outside of academics, his hobbies are playing tennis, hanging out with friends, boxing, reading books, listening to music, and swimming at the beach. His main motivation for winning this competition is to show that with the right amount of dedication and passion, anything is achievable.