A Renfrew man's definition of sleep in a science contest was judged best by a majority of 20,000 11-year-olds across the country and around the world.

Their collective thumbs up won Brandon Aldinger an all-expenses-paid trip to New York City last weekend, a $1,000 prize and a meeting with the contest founder, actor Alan Alda.

Aldinger said Stony Brook University's Flame Challenge contest was something he read about earlier this year.

“The Chemical and Engineering News, which is the weekly publication of the American Chemical Society, had a blurb about the contest, so I entered back in January, February,” said Aldinger, who has a Ph.D. in chemistry from Cornell University.

He works at Ibis Tek in Middlesex Township where he designs transparent armor, the multilayered glass composites that protect soldiers in their vehicles.

The Flame Challenge asked scientists to answer the question “What is sleep?” in a way that would interest and enlighten 11-year-olds.

More than 20,000 schoolchildren judged the entries, including those in Australia, Canada, China, Pakistan, Germany, India, Kuwait, New Zealand, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and the United Kingdom, as well as the United States.

“It had to be 300 words maximum. It had to be very short. That's the way this contest works,” said Aldinger. “They send the entries out to these different students, and they had to hear it, not read it.”

“It had to be understandable, and students had to absorb it when it was read to them,” Aldinger said.

“It took about an evening's worth of work,” he said of his entry. “There was an hour or two of research. I spent a little while drafting it. There had to be something on the end that would make it memorable.”

“I had to make sure there were good transitions and to avoid jargon,” he said.

He said he read it to his wife, Jessica.

“After that, I just changed a few words and sentence structure,” he said.

In his entry, Aldinger explained that during sleep our brain organizes what we learned while we were awake. He added: “So, the next time your mom or dad yells, 'Wake up! It's time to go to school!' you can explain to them that you were actually still studying from yesterday!”

He kept the final memorable line: “Does anyone else dream about fighting mutant ninjas or is it just me?”

It must have made an impression. Aldinger said the contest let him know in late April he was a finalist and in mid-May that he had won.

“It was one of the neatest things,” he said. “They flew me up to New York City. I got to take my wife with me. They paid for the hotel, transportation, meals.”

Aldinger and Eric Galicia of Des Plaines, Ill., who won the video contest, each received a $1,000 prize, as well as congratulations from Alda and hundreds of children at the “What Is Sleep?” event Monday at the World Science Festival in Manhattan.

Aldinger got to have breakfast with Alda.

“We talked quite a while, and I got to see him do run-throughs,” said Aldinger.

He credits his time in the faith band at Community Alliance Church with quelling any butterflies as he walked across the stage in front of a 1,000 people to accept his award.

The Flame Challenge, now in its fourth year, aims to encourage scientists to explain complex material in ways nonscientists can understand.

Alda launched the Flame Challenge in 2012 by asking scientists to explain a flame to an 11-year old in clear and concise terms. Since then, the questions — what is time, what is color, and what is sleep — have been contributed by 11-year-olds.

The sleep question was sent in by a sixth-grade class in Garden City Middle School on Long Island, N.Y.

The first year's question, “What is a flame?” was one that Alda had asked when he was 11. The contest is sponsored by the American Chemical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

“Scientists make use of a rich imagination when they do science,” Alda said. “To see them use that same rich imagination when they explain science is thrilling. I love seeing the unexpected places where the Flame Challenge has inspired scientists to go.”

The Flame Challenge will run again next year with a new question contributed by 11-year-olds. Children can submit their questions for consideration as next year's topic at the website, flamechallenge.org.