It is a big deal for a 17-year old girl to represent the country and Gayathri Muthukumar, the winner of the 7th Indian National Brain Bee, is excited.
Her victory in the Mumbai event organised by Seven Hills Hospital will take her to Washington DC to compete in the finals of the 16th International Brain Bee scheduled from August 7 to 10.
“I was very happy with the way the competition went on, but I didn’t expect to win,” said Gayathri, a Class 11 student at National Public School, Indiranagar. “The competition exposed me to avenues of science that I would not have been exposed to otherwise. Neuroscience is an exciting field,” she said.
The Brain Bee is a quiz competition on neurosciences for students who have exceptional credentials in Biology and have an interest to pursue careers in healthcare. This contest is conducted on a regional level and subsequently the winners in these levels contest in the national competition.
“I am comfortable with quizzing to a certain level, but it was the anatomy and diagnosis levels that were my favourite. It allows one to get practical as we get to work with doctors. I had to visit Narayana Hrudalaya to get advise on anatomy during my preparation for the competition,” said Gayathri, who beat 10 others from Chandigarh, Kolkata, Mumbai, Noida, Delhi, Allahabad, Pune, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Cochin, and Hyderabad.
Gayathri’s interest in science is primarily because of her family’s association with science. “Most of my family is into science. My father is a principal engineer in a company,” she said. Her favourite subjects are Biology and Chemistry. “I am looking at a career in medicine, but I’m not sure if it will be as a doctor or as a researcher.”