Luca Turin was born on 20 November 1953 and is a biophysicist and writer with a long-standing interest in bioelectronics, the sense of smell, perfumery, and the fragrance industry.
13 Facts About Luca Turin
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Luca Turin studied Physiology and Biophysics at University College London and earned his PhD in 1978.
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In 2001 Luca Turin was hired as CTO of start-up company Flexitral, based in Chantilly, Virginia, to pursue rational odorant design based on his theories.
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In 2010, Luca Turin was based at MIT, working on a project to develop an electronic nose using natural receptors, financed by DARPA.
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Luca Turin is a Stavros Niarchos Researcher in the neurobiology division at the Biomedical Sciences Research Center Alexander Fleming in Greece.
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Biophysical simulations published in Physical Review Letters in 2007 suggest that Luca Turin's proposal is viable from a physics standpoint.
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Luca Turin filed one of the first patents for a semiconductor device made with protein.
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Luca Turin has reported detection of non-equilibrium electron spins in Drosophila by their radiofrequency emissions, though this is described as a "work in progress".
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In 1988, Luca Turin began work at the lab led by neuroscience researcher Henri Korn at the Pasteur Institute.
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Luca Turin is the author of the book The Secret of Scent, which details the history and science of his theory of olfaction; an acclaimed critical guide to perfume in French, Parfums: Le Guide, with two editions in 1992 and 1994; and is co-author of the English-language books Perfumes: The A-Z Guide and The Little Book of Perfumes.
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Since 2003, Luca Turin has written a regular column on perfume, "Duftnote," for NZZ Folio, the German-language monthly magazine of Swiss newspaper Neue Zurcher Zeitung.
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In 2001 and 2004, Luca Turin won the Prix Jasmin, the highest honor for perfume writing in France.
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Luca Turin won the Jasmine Prize in the UK in 2009.