Luca Turin was born in 1953 and educated in
France, Italy, and the UK. He holds a PhD in biophysics from the
University of London and was for ten years a tenured staff member
of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). From
1993 to 2000 he was Lecturer in Biophysics at University College,
London. Since 1996 he has worked on primary olfactory reception and
the prediction of odor character. In 2001 he became chief technical
officer of Flexitral, where he uses his theory of olfaction to
design new fragrances and flavor molecules.
Luca Turin is probably the best qualified person in the world to
co-author a perfume guide. He wrote the very first in 1992, a
relatively small (270 fragrances), literary, and confidential
affair in French. The second edition from 1994 is available for
free download online. Although out of print and out of date, his
guide has achieved cult status among perfume aficionados goes for
up to $800 on eBay. He has also twice won the highest honor for
perfume writing in France, the Prix Jasmin, in 2001 and 2004.
Turin's fame is partly based on a BBC documentary about his
scientific work, A Code in the Nose, which still airs in
reruns all over the world. It was further enhanced by the success
of a book written by Chandler Burr (now the New York Times
perfume critic), The Emperor of Scent (2003). Most
recently, Turin's own book, The Secret of Scent, was
released to critical acclaim in the UK in May 2006 and in the US by
HarperCollins in November 2006. He also writes two monthly columns
of perfume criticism for high-profile magazines, one in the
prestigious Folio Magazine of the Neuer Zurcher
Zeitung, and the other for Hamburg-based luxury magazine,
Park Avenue, published by Grüner and Jahr.