IFRA UK Fragrance Forum 2022 Explores Sense of Smell

IFRA UK’s Fragrance Forum 2022 will explore how our sense of smell defines us and the world around us.
IFRA UK’s Fragrance Forum 2022 will explore how our sense of smell defines us and the world around us.
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The IFRA UK Fragrance Forum 2022 will be held Thursday, October 20, 2022, with the theme “Scents of Identity: How Our Sense of Smell Defines Us.”

Related: IFRA Examines F&F’s Path to Green Chemistry

Results from the National Smell Survey will also be revealed at this event. IFRA UK has teamed up with YouGov to explore what the public’s perception of smell is, how smells connect with memory and emotions, whether peoples’ sense of smell has changed over time and what some favorite smells are.

Awareness of anosmia (loss of smell) has become more prevalent in recent years given its links with COVID-19. This year’s Fragrance Forum will delve even deeper into the world of olfaction, exploring what people think about their sense of smell, the role it plays in everyday life and the impact it has on people—whether good or bad.

Barry C. Smith, professor and director of the Institute of Philosophy at the Centre for the Study of the Senses, will chair the Fragrance Forum and share results from IFRA UK’s National Smell Survey.

This year’s speaker lineup includes:

  • Katherine Whitcroft: ENT surgeon, Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital and University College London (UCL). Exploring how clinicians test a patients’ sense of smell and how different patients perceive these assessments.
  • Simon Gane: consultant surgeon, Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital and UCL. New research by Gane and colleagues has identified a highly potent odor molecule that appears to be a trigger for the sense of ‘disgust’ experienced by patients with parosmia (changed sense of smell).
  • Johan Lundstrom: associate professor, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. In an attempt to answer why humans have noses, Lundstrom’s session will investigate how odor pleasantness is processed by the brain, what the cultural impact of this is and how smelling both pleasant and unpleasant odors can impact our behavior in an unconscious way.
  • Stuart Firestein: professor at the Department of Biological Sciences, Colombia University. For the final session, Firestein will be in conversation with Lisa Hipgrave, Director of IFRA UK. Together they will discuss how the nose processes smell, from both a neuroscience and perfumer’s perspective.

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