Prof. Charles Spence
Dept. Experimental Psychology, Oxford
Professor Charles Spence is a world-famous experimental psychologist with a specialisation in neuroscience-inspired multisensory design. He has worked with many of the world’s largest companies since establishing the Crossmodal Research Laboratory (CRL) at the Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University in 1997.
Prof. Spence has published over 1,000 academic articles and edited or authored 15 books, including, in 2014, the Prose prize- winning The perfect meal, and the international bestseller Gastrophysics: The new science of eating (2017; Penguin Viking) – winner of the 2019 Le Grand Prix de la Culture Gastronomique from Académie Internationale de la Gastronomie. His latest book Sensehacking (2021; Penguin Viking) explores how the senses are stimulated and, using cutting-edge science, Spence shows how the senses interact and affect our minds and bodies. Click here to take a look.
Much of Prof. Spence’s work focuses on the design of enhanced multisensory food and drink experiences, through collaborations with chefs, baristas, mixologists, chocolatiers, perfumiers, and the food and beverage, and flavour and fragrance industries. He has worked extensively in the world of multisensory experiential wine and coffee and has also worked extensively on the question of how technology will transform our dining/drinking experiences in the future.
The research conducted at the Crossmodal Research Laboratory in Oxford has garnered widespread media attention across the globe. Over the last decade alone, Prof. Spence and the CRL have been featured in more than 3,000 newspaper articles, radio interviews, and television programmes, including in The Times, The Economist, The Financial Times and The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/02/accounting-for-taste)
Prof. Spence frequently delivers consumer neuroscience lectures and courses to global companies, business schools and schools of business administration, such as at Los Andes, Rosario University, and Javariana University in Colombia, the Saïd Business School, Oxford, and the Singapore Business School.
