Schering Stiftung

Project 

Photo: Taisiia Shestopal, unsplash

Smelling

Have We Taken Leave of Our Senses?

Photo: Taisiia Shestopal, unsplash

Smelling

Have We Taken Leave of Our Senses?

Date:

March 11, 2025, 7–9 p.m.

Venue:

Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Leibniz-Saal
Markgrafenstraße 38
10117 Berlin

Registration via this link

The event will be in German.


Smells and tastes influence our lives in subtle yet profound ways. They trigger memories, regulate our emotions, and influence our social interactions. How can we specifically appeal to the sense of smell and taste in our everyday lives in order to enhance our wellbeing?

In the final event in the series “Have We Taken Leave of Our Senses?,” we would like to discuss this question with experts from different disciplines.

The psychologist Dr. Kathrin Ohla will share her findings on the relationship between taste experiences and memories and emotions and explain how we can train our sense of smell – especially when we have lost it due to illness. To work against forgetting, the artist Sissel Tolaas has collected and created smell profiles for over 20 years. Her experimental projects show how smells, in art and research, can help broaden our understanding of the world. Finally, Cell physiologist Prof. Dr. Hanns Hatt will give us an insight into how smells are processed by the human brain and how they become embedded in our memory.

In conversation with our three guests, we will explore the significance of smells and tastes and discover how the senses can help us navigate and thrive in a continually changing world.

The event is part of the Brain Awareness Week (March 10 – 16, 2025).

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Hanns Hatt is a biologist, physician and cell physiologist at the Ruhr University Bochum. The focus of his scientific work is on molecular and cellular olfactory research, especially on the effect of fragrances on humans. His books on this topic became bestsellers. Hanns Hatt served as the president of the Union of German Academies of Sciences from 2015 to 2022.

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Sissel Tolaas has been working on odor research since 1990, pursuing an interdisciplinary approach that combines forensic chemistry, chemical communication, sensory ecology, linguistics and visual arts. She founded the SMELL RE_searchLab Berlin in 2004 and has developed groundbreaking projects for the identification and reproduction of odors worldwide. Her work has been exhibited in renowned museums such as the MOMA in New York and the Tate Modern in London. Tolaas has collaborated with leading universities such as MIT and Oxford and has created 55 odor profiles (SmellScapes). She is currently working on smell-molecule preservation/conservation archives of the world’s oceans and forests and on smell artefacts and a smell heritage archive for the Pompeii Ruins. Tolaas’s collections of smell molecules and smell structures include 15,000 smell samples and formulas.

 

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Dr. Kathrin Ohla studied psychology at the University of Magdeburg, earned her PhD in Leipzig, and conducted research in Switzerland and the USA before returning to Germany in 2012. She has worked in Potsdam, Berlin, and Jülich as a group leader and professor. Since 2021, she has been leading the research area 'Perception and Cognitive Neurosciences' at DSM-Firmenich, a leading company in nutrition and health, and serves as a private lecturer at the University of Münster. Dr. Ohla has received numerous awards for her research on the perception and function of the chemical senses of smell and taste and regularly serves as a reviewer for international journals and funding bodies. She resides in Münster and Geneva.

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Partners 

This Project is realized in cooperation with the following partners:

Brain Awareness Week

 

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Schering Stiftung

Unter den Linden 32-34
10117 Berlin

Telefon: +49.30.20 62 29 62
Email: info@scheringstiftung.de

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Thursday to Monday: 1 pm - 7 pm
Saturday to Sunday: 11 am - 7 pm
free entrance

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