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Press Releases | |
November 7, 2003
Southampton College "Brain Bee" Program Gets International Attention
Prof. John Neill to Offer Secrets to Success at Society of Neuroscience ConferenceContact:
Darren Johnson darren.johnson@liu.edu
631-287-8360Southampton, NY — The world’s best Brain Bee training program — located at Southampton College of Long Island University — will receive international attention at the prestigious Society of Neuroscience Conference in New Orleans this weekend.
On Sunday, Nov. 9, Southampton College Professor Dr. John Neill will present "How to Run a Brain Bee Workshop" at the conference, which is expected to attract approximately 30,000 researchers and is considered the most important annual event in the field.
Students in Southampton College’s high school neuroscience program, trained by top researchers Dr. Neill and Dr. Paul Forestell, have placed in the top 10 each of the four years the International Brain Bee has existed. In the past two years, Southampton College has placed Nos. 1 and 2.
Southampton College, which hosts the Long Island Brain Bee, produced 2003’s International champion Saroj Kunnakkat, 16, who took first place overall in a heated competition that lasted 11 rounds. Kunnakkat, a junior from Lynbrook (N.Y.) High School, continues a Long Island tradition of excellence when it comes to this prestigious competition. The previous year, Southampton College champ Vikas Gupta, from Comsewogue High School in Port Jefferson Station, placed second overall in the international contest. This year’s international champion, Kunnakkat, received $6000 in scholarships, an all-expense-paid trip for two to New Orleans to attend this Society for Neuroscience Conference and trophies for her and her high school.
The Brain Bee experience was not new to Kunnakkat. She had taken second place in the regional competition at Southampton College the previous two years. At the College, students are prepped by neuroscience professors Dr. Neill and Dr. Forestell in intensive weekly workshops leading up to the Brain Bee. This past spring, she swept the regional contest, answering every question put to her correctly. This entitled her to a $12,000 scholarship to Southampton College and the chance to participate in the International Brain Bee at the University of Maryland’s Baltimore Medical School.
Southampton College, which is internationally known for its hands-on undergraduate programs in Psychology and Interdisciplinary Psychology/Biology and graduate training in Applied Behavior Analysis, will again offer its Brain Bee workshops starting in February. For more information, call Dr. Neill at 631-287-8202.
Internationally, the Brain Bee is part of Brain Awareness Week each March. Spearheaded by both the Dana Alliance, a private philanthropic foundation, and the Society for Neuroscience, the goal is to motivate youth to learn about the brain and pursue careers in biomedical brain research in the fight against mental retardation, cerebral palsy, spinal-cord injury and other brain disorders.