Brainpower earns Perse student place in International Neuroscience Olympiad

Hannah (Lower Sixth) has demonstrated the depth of her neurological knowledge to clinch a place at the International Neuroscience Olympiad.

She will represent the UK in the prestigious competition online next month after finishing third at the British Neuroscience Olympiad.

There were also outstanding performances from fellow Perse students Riddhi (Upper Sixth) and Tanvi (Year 10), who came sixth and eighth overall out of 50 entrants in the national finals.

Hannah, who is co-leader of the NeuroSoc club at The Perse with Anya (Lower Sixth), was thrilled to qualify for the International Olympiad after narrowly missing out on a spot last year when she was fourth.

“It’s really exciting,” she said. “To do it this year was super rewarding. I’m really thankful my hard work paid off.”

The national finals usually take place in London but were held online this year due to there being a number of overseas students taking part.

Hannah said: “It was really cool to be able to chat and participate with people from a lot of different countries and that’s something I’m also looking forward to with the International Olympiad.”

A set of three challenges faced all participants in the national competition, including a multiple-choice quiz based on general knowledge around neuroscience.

They also had to diagnose hypothetical patients’ conditions, based on video evidence, and identify a series of structures from images of brain and spinal cord specimens.

The top 10 students then went through to a live question-and-answer session to decide the final placings.

Hannah said: “The Q&A was open for the public to watch and it was nerve-racking because you also didn’t have much time to respond, but it was so rewarding when you got the answers correct.

“I’ve not had a lot of information about the International Olympiad yet, but I’m really proud of getting to this round.

“It would be great to do well, but I just want to have fun and gain knowledge and that’s the main thing for me.

“I’ve always been interested in neuroscience because it’s a very young field and there’s a lot of undiscovered information compared to other biological fields. I’d like to be part of the generation that could be part of discovering more about the brain.”