About Us

The humble beginnings, growth and expansion of the
Deutsche Neurowissenschaften-Olympiade e.V.

Our program is inspired by the International Brain Bee (IBB), a global science outreach initiative, which targets high school students. The IBB promotes the study of life-sciences and aims to introduce talented young students to the global scientific community. ‘Brain Bees’ themselves are multi-stage neuroscience competitions designed to teach students about the brain. Initially founded in the late 1990s by Dr. Norbert Myslinski, a neuropharmacologist in the U.S., the ‘Brain Bee’ program has since expanded to more than 50 countries worldwide, with the support of enthusiastic Ph.D. students, scientists, and teachers.

Former US Brain Bee participant, Dr. Julianne McCall established the “German Brain Bee” (GBB) competition in 2011 during her Ph.D. studies. This was the first competition of its kind to take place in Germany and was mainly organised by Ph.D. students. Over the next 4 years, the GBB was held annually in Heidelberg, reaching more than 100 high schools across Germany since its inauguration.

“I admire your commitment to expanding the Deutsche Neurowissenschaften Olympiade program in Germany. For us teachers it means a lot and it always helps us when researchers find time to work with students. This helps to motivate young students incredibly!”

Christian Buss
Teacher
Gymnasium Riedberg, Frankfurt

A high quality educational program

At DNO e.V., having a high quality educational experience for our students is our top priority. The educational content of our program is strategically planned and designed in order to give our student participants a realistic and clinically relevant experience.

In 2015, the GBB was renamed the ‘Deutsche Neurowissenschaften Olympiade’ (DNO) e.V. and was established as a non-profit organization. Soon after, the board of the DNO e.V. began the process of expanding the competition throughout Germany, with the aim of initiating other projects such as summer research schools and developing educational tools for students and teachers.

Currently, DNO e.V. is supported by students, scientists, teachers, and professors, as well as the German Neuroscience Society (Deutsche Neurowissenschaftliche Gesellschaft, NWG) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL in Heidelberg, Germany).

We are all about DRIVING connectivity!

Our motto, “Driving Connectivity,” refers to the multiple organizational and functional levels of neuronal activity within the human brain. It also refers to our desire to encourage national and international exchange among young students on their way towards a scientific career.

Help us

Discover the next generation of neuroscientists

Discover

Young, talented students and encourage them to become fascinated by the world’s most powerful computing machine: the brain.

Shape Minds

By providing opportunities for students to have a first-class neuroscience research experience, giving them a foundation of scientific inquiry and inspiration at the beginning stages of their careers.

Inspire

Young students to contribute to society by encouraging them to be creative scientists, motivated to push the boundaries of scientific knowledge and research to discover, treat, cure, and prevent.