About 55 high school students from the St. Louis region and beyond tested their knowledge of the human brain and learned about neuroscience careers at the 15th annual St. Louis Area Brain Bee March 8 at Washington University in St. Louis.
Shreenik Enturi, a junior at Fort Zumwalt South High School, won this year's competition after placing third in the 2024 Brain Bee. He will now compete in the 2025 USA Brain Bee Championship, which takes place May 3-4 at Rutgers University. Enturi aspires to be a psychiatrist.
"I just love learning about why humans do the things they do, like what up here makes them perform the actions we do every day," Enturi said, pointing to his head.
Participants also conducted experiments and explored careers with local neuroscientists.
The annual event is organized by Erik Herzog, the Viktor Hamburger Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences, and Synapse, WashU's student neuroscience club. This year's student organizers Shriya Koneru, Rohan Rao and Alice Xu, all participated in Brain Bee events in high school. In fact, Koneru and Rao competed against each other at the 2021 St. Louis Area Brain Bee. Rao won that event and went on to place eighth in the nation at the USA Brain Bee. He said the St. Louis bee influenced his decision to apply to WashU and to study neuroscience.
"Just getting to read through brain facts in my spare time, it was a lot of fun," Rao recalled. "I remember I read through brain facts front to back so many times that I started reading it back to front. I think that inspiration for neuroscience was a huge part of what I got out of it."
The Brain Bee is sponsored by WashU's Institute for School Partnership, McDonnell Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology and McDonnell Center for Systems Neuroscience as well as the Dana Foundation and the Society for Neuroscience.
Top 10 St. Louis Area Brain Bee finalists
Shreenik Enturi, Fort Zumwalt South High School
Aalee Khan, Ladue Horton Watkins High School
Ajay Kota, Centennial High School (Frisco, Texas)
Ethan Johnson, Central High School (Springfield, Mo.)
Hannah Mathew, Parkway Central High School
Yule Zheng, Mary Institute and St. Louis Country Day School
Ira Rodrigues, Ladue Horton Watkins High School
Nakshatra Mohan, Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School (Broadview Heights, Ohio)
Hansika Gonuguntla, Marquette High School
Meghana Hebbar, Parkway South High School
