Canadian teen wins second place in international neuroscience competition

A Winnipeg high school student placed second at the International Brain Bee, an international neuroscience contest, where she competed against nearly 3,000 other students from 40 countries in Chicago, Ill.

“For me, it was like, so surprising,” 11th-grader Lisa Wei told CTV News. “I was not expecting it at all.”

To get there, Wei won a local Winnipeg competition organized by the University of Manitoba and then competed against 20 contestants at the Canadian National Brain Bee tournament which was held in Vancouver.

Wei says she did a lot of studying on her time off.

“The preparation definitely consisted of reading the materials online,” she said.

“I spent my summer months learning it, setting goals, for example, how many chapters or articles to read per day and I spent the rest of the September month to review the sections I read during the summer.”

The competition, which was held online, focuses on facts about the brain, from basic functions to more complex levels like emotion and memory.

She told CTV News her love for the brain comes from its sophistication “and how an organ can simply lead to extremely complex phenomena such as behaviour, emotion and memory.”

The judges ran out of questions to ask Wei and her Australian competitor since they knew all the answers.

Dr. Robert Beattie, a professor at the University of Manitoba’s College of Medicine, worked with Wei and says it’s a testament to her skill.

“This competition is incredibly difficult, and these questions are post-graduate level,” Beattie said. “She’s only in grade 11, which is mind-boggling, no pun intended. She’s really a phenomenal student and we are extremely proud.”

Beattie says Winnipeggers have been successful in the brain bee, winning three of the last four competitions at the Canadian level.

“We’re training, through this competition, the next generation of neuroscientists and the next generation of health care workers and just instilling that passion for science in these students,” he said.

The competition is open to all high school students across the country and is an opportunity to learn about neuroscience for those interested in pursuing a career in the field.

The Canadian National Brain Bee will be held in Toronto from May 21 to 24, 2025.