27 February 2023
Following a day of high-level competition at London Metropolitan University on Saturday 4 February, Lower Sixth Former Kornelia was crowned champion at the National British Brain Bee, a neuroscience competition for senior school students.
For this impressive achievement, Kornelia, along with the 31 students who also secured their place through an online round, took a written exam where she had 45 minutes to answer 55 neuroscience questions; a neuroanatomy and histology exam, where she had to identify different brain structures, tissues and cells; and a patient diagnosis exam, where she was given 12 patients’ symptoms and history to analyse before coming up with a diagnosis in just 20 minutes.
Based on their total combined scores for these exams, the top 10 students took part in a live question-and-answer round with three prominent neuroscientist judges in front of a large audience.
The judges who chose Kornelia as the winner were Dr Cassandra Terry, a Reader (Associate Professor) in Protein Pathology for the School of Human Sciences at London Metropolitan University; Dr Elizabeth Prabhakar, an experienced educator with lead roles at previous medical and dental schools, Barts and The London, Malta Campus, and Plymouth University; and Professor Gareth Barnes (pictured with Kornelia), head of the MEG laboratories at UCL, who works on the development of human brain imaging systems.
Kornelia, who plans to study medicine and become a psychiatrist, will represent the UK at the International Brain Bee, which will be held virtually in conjunction with the American Psychological Convention 2023 in Washington, DC in August.