International Brain Bee

The International Brain Bee (IBB) is a neuroscience competition for high school students, founded by Dr. Norbert Myslinski in 1998 in the USA and has to encompass than 30 countries across six continents. Students advance through three tiers of competition from local to national and eventually to the International Championship. Students prepare for the competition by studying books that are freely downloadable, and the questions posed are drawn from these materials.

 In March 2019, the first Irish Brain Bee competition took place during Brain Awareness Week, and was hosted by the GNC, and supported by Neuroscience Ireland.  The winner of the inaugural competition was Michael Flaherty, then a student at Coláiste Éinde in Galway City, who went on to represent Ireland at the IBB World Competition in September of that year in South Korea. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there were no competitions in 2020 or 2021. In 2022, a virtual competition took place and the winner on this occasion was Olivia da Rocha da Brito, from Mercy College, Sligo and went forward to represent Ireland in a virtual IBB competition in June of that year. In 2023, 41 students from across the country took part in the Irish Brain Bee Competition. Jocasta McDonagh from St. Paul’s school, Headford, Co. Galway was the overall winner and will represent Ireland at the International Brain Bee World Championship to be held virtually in August in Washington, DC.