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Dr. Rachel Herz

Rachel Herz, Ph.D. is a neuroscientist and leading world expert on the psychological science of smell. She has been conducting research on the sense of smell, emotion, perception, motivated behavior and cognition since 1990. Dr. Herz has published 82 original research papers, received numerous awards and grants, co-authored scholarly handbooks, and is an adjunct professor in the Medical School of Brown University and part-time faculty in the Department of Psychology at Boston College. She is also a professional consultant to various industries regarding smell, taste, food and flavor, and is frequently called upon as an expert witness in legal cases involving olfaction.

Dr. Herz is the author of several academic and popular science books including the college textbook Sensation & Perception (Oxford University Press) now in its 5th edition, The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell (2007; Harper Collins,) which was selected as a finalist for the “2009 AAAS Prize for Excellence in Science Books,” That’s Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion (2012; W.W. Norton & Co), which analyzes the emotion of disgust from culture to neuroscience, and her latest book Why You Eat What You Eat: The Science Behind Our Relationship with Food (2017; W.W. Norton & Co), which explores how our senses and psychology govern our perception of food, and the experiences and consequences of eating.