IFRA joins the 15^th IFRA UK Fragrance Forum in London

The International Fragrance Association (IFRA) joined scientists, perfumers and industry experts at the Royal Institution in London on Thursday, 8 October 2026 for the 15th IFRA UK Fragrance Forum, which IFRA supported once again as event partner.

This year's theme, 'Scent, Technology and our Senses', explored what happens to our sense of smell in an increasingly digital world, from the hype to the reality.

Alexander Mohr, President of IFRA, opened the afternoon session. Members of the IFRA Europe Regional Committee, which met in London the day before, also attended the Forum.

For an industry rooted in history and emotion, the theme was a timely one. Fragrance has always moved with the times – from the first synthetic molecules to the artificial intelligence (AI) and digital tools now changing how scent is created, assessed and experienced.

The program brought together leading voices in olfaction research:

• Prof Jonas Olofsson, Stockholm University and Karolinska Institutet: 'The forgotten sense of smell – molecules, models and minds'
• Prof Simon Niedenthal, Malmö University: 'Digital olfaction in a material world'
• Dr Cecilia Bembibre, University College London: 'From nose to dataset and back again: representing heritage smells in a digital world'
• Prof Jonathan Williams, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry: 'Air chemistry of people and digitizing smells'

Prof Barry Smith of the University of London's Centre for the Senses chaired the morning session, and Prof Stuart Firestein of Columbia University the afternoon. The program also included a 'Humans vs Technology' session, in which IFRA UK perfumer Eliza Douglas and an AI platform each created a perfume from the same brief.

IFRA thanks Lisa Hipgrave, Director of IFRA UK, and her team for bringing together such a remarkable group of scientists, thinkers and practitioners.