Luca Turin (1953 - ) is a biophysicist with a long-standing interest in scent, fragrance and the perfume industry.

Since 1996 Turin has been the leading proponent of the vibration theory of olfaction, which proposes that the vibrational spectroscopic properties of molecules can be an important determinant of their associated smells, rather than just the specific "lock and key" ligand binding proposed by the orthodox shape theory of olfaction. Turin suggested that a plausible mechanism for such a molecular spectroscope could be inelastic electron tunneling.

Formerly for ten years a tenured staff member at CNRS in France, and then Lecturer in Biophysics at University College London, in 2001 Turin became CTO of a start-up company Flexitral, based in Chantilly, Virginia, to pursue rational odorant design based on his theories.

He is the author of the book .

References

External links

• Flexitral website

1953 births | Living people | molecular biologists | physiologists | Biophysics