N.J. Brain Bee Held at Liberty Science Center
January 31, 2008

High school students from around the state competed Saturday, Jan. 26, in the annual New Jersey Brain Bee supported by Schering-Plough, which was held for the first time at Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. Yixiao Wang, a student at Westfield High School, took the top honor, winning $300 and an expenses-paid trip for two to compete in the annual International Brain Bee at the University of Maryland in Baltimore in March. The New Jersey contest is one of many in the U.S., Canada and Mexico to qualify for the international bee that will be held in conjunction with Brain Awareness Week, March 10-16.

The bee, designed to motivate young people and inspire them to pursue careers in brain-related research fields, was organized and judged by local members of the Society for Neuroscience. Carrie Markgraf, a fellow at SPRI, led a team who planned and ran the contest. Markgraf’s SPRI team included John Meredith, principal scientist; Jean Lachowicz, director, Cardiovascular and Metabolic Disease; Kevin Keane, principal research pathologist; Maria Cirino, senior scientist; Erik DeBoer, associate scientist; Satinder Sarang, senior scientist; and, Maria Roman, senior scientist.

The second-place winner was Adnan Khan, a student at Hackensack High School, and third place went to Jacqueline Somogyi, who attends Mother Seton Regional High School in Clark, N.J.