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Press Releases | |
March 29, 2004
Southampton College Boasts Two Alums in International Brain Bee Competition
Students Trained With Southampton College Professor; Receive Top Honors in Rigorous Testing of Their Knowledge of The BrainContact:
Patricia Conway
631-287-8313Southampton, NY - Bhakti Nagalla, a senior from Farmington High School in Connecticut, and her parents traveled to Southampton College, eight hours round trip, for four consecutive Saturdays so she could participate in workshops to prepare for the International Brain Bee. Her long car trips to Long Island have paid off as Nagalla was named the International Brain Bee champion last Saturday. Her mother, a physician, credits Southampton College's workshops with helping her daughter to win the International competition.
Nagalla, who trained with Southampton College professor John Neill, was honored along with this year's Southampton College Brain Bee winner, Rohit Repala, who placed fourth in the international contest. Repala, who plans to be a neurologist, attributes his future career goal to his participation in the Southampton College competition.
International Brain Bee 2004 Champion, Bhakti Nagala (Left) is being presented the IBB Trophy by the 2003 Champion, Saroj Kunnakkat (Right). Last year, about 30 local Brain Bees took place around the country including Southampton College. Winners of the local competitions compete in the final rounds and visit Washington, D.C., and the National Institutes of Health.
"We must be doing something right," said Dr. Neill, coordinator of the College's Brain Bee and summer Psychobiology Workshops for high school students. "We have trained two of the four top scholars in this year's competition." The College also trained the winner of the International Brain Bee in the last two consecutive years.
Coming from various high schools across the Island, sixteen scholars competed in the Southampton College Brain Bee last month, testing their knowledge of the brain and how it relates to intelligence, memory, emotions, sensations, movement, stress, aging, sleep and neurological disorders. Repala, who was a finalist in two previous competitions, walked away with a $12,000 scholarship to Southampton College and a scholarship to the College's summer workshops.
Last year's international winner, Saroj Kunnekkatt, was also the first place winner at the Southampton College competition in 2003. Kunnekkatt, who is planning to become a neurologist, has received several offers from world-renowned neuroscientists to work with them as a result of winning both the Southampton College and the International Brain Bee. She credited the preparation workshops as being very helpful in preparing her for the competitions.
High school students who would like to prepare early for next year's Brain Bee can get an early start by taking a summer workshop on Psychobiology at the College. The workshop will include a host of psychobiology topics, including lectures and laboratory training about neuroscience, marine mammals, behavioral genetics, perception and behavior analysis. Southampton College's neuroscientists, psychologists, biologists and chemists will teach the interdisciplinary workshop.
For further information about the Southampton College Summer Psychobiology Workshop call (631) 287-8175 or email summer@southampton.liu.edu
