Dr. Norbert Myslinski founded the IBB at the University of Maryland in 1999 with 12 local chapters in North America. It has now grown to more than 150 chapters in more than 30 countries and six continents. Approximately thirty thousand students compete annually.
Winners have been recognised by Presidents and Ambassadors and other public officials. Many former competitors are now working in neuroscience, neurology, psychology and related fields.
Australia's International Brain Bee Dominance
Australia has won the International Brain Bee three times – in 2012 (Teresa Tang, QLD), 2013 (Jackson Huang, QLD) and 2015 (Jade Pham, NSW)
International Champions 2012 - current
- The 2020 International Brain Bee World Championship will be held in Washington D.C., USA, in conjunction with the American Psychological Association Annual Convention
- The 2019 International Brain Bee World Championship was held in Daegu, South Korea, in conjunction with the 10th International Brain Organization World Congress of Neuroscience. Sophia Ye from New Zealand placed 4th and Silas Hansch-Maher placed 5th from 28 participants from around the world.
- The 2018 International Brain Bee World Championship was held in Berlin, Germany, in conjunction with the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) Annual Congress.
- The 2017 International Brain Bee World Championship was held will be in Washington D.C., USA, in conjunction with the American Psychological Association Annual Convention.
- The 2016 International Brain Bee competition was held in Copenhagen, Denmark hosted by the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies (FENS) 10th Forum of Neuroscience. The Champion of the 2016 International Brain Bee was Ana Ghenciulescu from Romania.
- The 2015 International Brain Bee competition was hosted for the first time by Australia at the joint meeting of the Australasian Neuroscience Society (ANS), the International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN) and the Asian Pacific Society for Neurochemistry (APSN). The competition was held at the Cairns Convention Centre (opens in new window), in Tropical North Queensland, in August 2015. The Champion of the 2015 International Brain Bee was Jade Pham from James Ruse Agriculture High School, Bankstown, NSW, Australia.
- The 2014 International Brain Bee Championship was held in Washington, DC, in conjunction with the American Psychological Association Convention. Eva Wang from Brisbane represented Australia as our National Champion. The Champion of the 2014 International Brain Bee was Gayathri Muthukumar of Bangalore, India.
- The 2013 International Brain Bee Championship (IBBC) was held in Vienna, Austria in conjunction with the 21st World Congress of Neurology. The 2013 Champion was Jackson Huang from the Academy for Science, Mathematics and Technology, Queensland.
- The 2012 International Brain Bee Championship was held in Cape Town, South Africa in conjunction with the International Congress of Psychology. The 2012 Champion was Teresa Tang from Brisbane State High School in Australia.