PROFESSOR CHARLES SPENCE 

“Charles is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of multisensory perception, he has been one of my biggest inspirations” 

- Heston Blumenthal -

Professor Charles Spence is an industry-leading multi-award-winning expert in the field of multi-sensory perception and neuroscience-inspired design. 

• He is the head and founder of the Crossmodal Research Laboratory at Oxford University, a pioneering lab founded in 2002 bringing together leading psychologists, designers, sensory scientists, chefs, composers and marketers to apply insights from neuroscience to design, products and services that more effectively stimulate the senses of the consumer.

• Crossmodalism: the study of how our 5 senses work together and how our brains manage and process the information that forms the extraordinarily rich multi sensory experiences that fill our daily lives.

• A prolific influencer, Spence has published over 750 top-flight scientific articles and 10 books. His recent publications, The Perfect Meal: The Multisensory Science of Food and Dining and Gastronomics are best sellers and he is due to release his next title Sensehacking Summer 2019.

• His lab’s pioneering work has had a real impact on Fortune 500 companies and Michelin starred chefs alike. It was through Heston Blumenthal’s collaborations with Spence (starting in 2002) that The Fat Duck’s infamous Sound of the Sea dish came about.

• Spence calls for a radical new way of examining and understanding the senses that has major implications for the way in which we design everything from household products, packaging to mobile phones, and from the food we eat to the places in which we work and live.

• Projects include a new and enhanced inflight experience at British Airways, an iPhone app for Häagen-Dazs and value-perception studies for the wine industry.  

Talks

• Chicago Ideas Week, U.S

• Wine Vision, France

• Google, U.K

• Hospitality Industry Summit, N.Z

• International Neurogastronomy Symposium, U.S

• Diálogos de cocina, Spain

• Digital Biscuit, Ireland

• Gelita Symposium, Germany

• Digital Biscuit, Ireland

• Future of Food, U.K

• Alchemists' Flavour Festival, Greece

• Wines of Argentina UK & U.S

• Re:Co Symposium, Sweden

• Fashion and the Senses Conference, U.K

• Food, Water, and Health Conference, Italy

• Symposium on Sound in Sensory Interactions, Singapore

Selected Press: The Perfect Meal, Wired, The Guardian, The New Yorker, The Drum, TEDx talk, The Telegraph, LSN