CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee 2023 Participants

Winnipeg student wins “Best Brain” in Canada!

1. First Place Canadian National winner: Mark Piasecki, Vincent Massey Collegiate in Winnipeg, representing Winnipeg Brain Bee
2. Second Place Canadian National winner: Sienna Su, Iroquois Ridge High School in Oakville, representing Hamilton Brain Bee
3. Third Place Canadian National winner: Arla Xiao, Crofton House School in Vancouver, representing Vancouver Brain Bee

Congratulations to the 2023 Canadian national Brain Bee winners!

Eighteen brilliant high school students, each of whom had already won their regional brain bee competitions, blew us all away with their neuroscience knowledge at the annual Canadian National Brain Bee, held May 20, 2023.  The questions were PhD-level difficult and the competition was fierce.  At the end of a challenging and inspiring day, three of the 18 students took the top prizes, and Mark Piasecki from Winnipeg won the 2023 Canadian National Brain Bee championship.

The top three winners of the Canadian National Brain Bee (https://brainbee.ca) are awarded cash prizes and trophies for their achievements. The first place national champion also receives an opportunity for an internship in a neuroscience lab, a trip to the Canadian Association for Neuroscience conference, which will be held in Vancouver in 2024, and bragging rights for having the "best brain" in Canada.

Mark Piasecki, this year's national champion, will represent Canada at the 2023 International Brain Bee held in conjunction with the APA conference in Washington DC taking place July 31st to August 5th.

Mark believes that his success in the neuroanatomy section of the brain bee helped him win the overall competition. "I owe a lot of my success to the coordinator of the Winnipeg Brain Bee, Dr. Sari Hannila who helped me review and visualize the anatomy of the brain, which was crucial for the competition and without it I doubt I would have even done half as well as I did."

The "Best Brain" in Canada said the competition helped him better understand what neuroscience is all about and where it could lead him. "Going into the competition I wasn't really sure what type of jobs the field of neuroscience could offer, but after talking to several professors and experts I have a much better grasp on what a future in neuroscience would look like."

Last year, Helene Li, from Ottawa, won the 2022 International Brain Bee, marking Canada's first International Brain Bee victory since 2006.

CIHR thanks all those who supported the 2023 CIHR Canadian National Brain Bee, especially the high school students, their teachers, and the army of devoted volunteers, as well as McMaster University who has been hosting the event since 2008

Date modified:

2023-07-21