Sanat Sethi, a 10th grader of West Essex High School, Roseland, New Jersey, from, representing the North South Foundation of Illinois, won the  2nd place in the 2007 International Brain Bee, hosted by the University of Maryland, Baltimore on March 16 and 17. The winner of the contest was
Melody Hu of Minneapolis, MN. 

Sethi enjoys studying science, especially biology. “Biology is arguably the most important science,” he says. “If we don’t understand how life works, how can we improve it?” With an eye toward a possible future as a neurologist or biotechnologist, Sethi also loves sports, especially basketball. He also plays soccer and tennis.

The Brain Bee, established in 1998, has become an established part of Brain Awareness Week, an advocacy program of the Society for Neuroscience. The Bee draws high-school contestants from across the United States and from other countries. This year’s competition drew 32 contestants, including representatives from India, Australia and Canada. Two of the five finalists, in fact, were from outside the United States.

Hu, a 15-year-old junior at Wayzata High School in Plymouth, Minn., also works in a lab at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities where she is designing a neuronal cell culture procedure that optimizes neuronal reactivity. She is also an award-winning pianist, the top staff writer for her school newspaper, and a member of her school’s varsity math team. Hu also directs a charity devoted to supporting impoverished but intellectually gifted students in rural China.

Norbert Myslinski, PhD, associate professor in the University of Maryland Dental School’s Department of Biomedical Sciences, developed the Brain Bee program as part of his quest to boost interest among young people who might choose neuroscience as a career, as well as to advance an appreciation for the subject among the general public. Other brain-centric programs he oversees include a summer research program for high school students, brain art and brain literature projects, and a variety of school and community presentations dealing with neuroscience.

"The future needs more neuroscientists to help fight in this war that we have against neurological diseases. Things like Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease, and the more than 1,000 kinds of neurological diseases that we have," says Myslinksi. "This competition is mainly to motivate them to open up a book about the human brain and read it and to inspire them to consider a career in neuroscience."

After a two-hour practical exam Friday at the School of Medicine to kick off the 2007 Brain Bee on March 16,  students traveled by bus to the National Institutes of Health outside of  Washington, DC, where they spent an afternoon mixing exams and briefings. After returning to Baltimore for dinner, they had yet another set of Brain Bee exams.

The next morning the contestants were back at it. The morning and afternoon activities included exams in the campus’s months-old, state-of-the-art Dental School, as well as campus tours and presentations. It wasn’t until about 9 p.m. that the 2007 International Brain Bee was decided. 

The other finalists were:

Morgan Bell, from Thomas Jefferson High School in Northern Virginia;
Carol Cui, from University of Toronto School in Toronto, Ontario;
and Tim Mew, from St. Paul’s School of Brisbane, Australia.

In addition to the University of Maryland, Baltimore and the Society for Neuroscience, supporters for the event include the Thadikonda Research Foundation of Frederick, which works to fight cerebral palsy and helps those families afflicted by that neurological disease. 

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