George Dodd trained as a perfumer whilst he was a student in Dublin in the early 1960s. He has subsequently had an exceptionally varied career in perfumery. He initially worked for Unilever (who own many of the famous names in international perfumery), and then worked as a consultant for several companies. In 1978, he opened a perfume studio in Stratford-Upon-Avon where he began to create personal perfumes; an activity he has continued since then.

In a parallel academic career, Dodd formed the Olfaction Research Group at the University of Warwick (1971-94), where he and his team of scientists made pioneering studies in many areas of perfume science. In 1986, he realised a long-term ambition by organising, with colleagues, the world's 1st conference on the Pyschology of Perfumery, and the books on these conferences are seminal reference books in perfumery.

In 1994, he moved to a wild area opposite the island of Harris in the Highlands of Scotland, where he created his present perfume studio. In recent years, he has investigated applications of perfumery in medicine and has also pioneered the use of human pheromones for attracting fish (and also humans).

Along with his partner, Liz Mountford, he has formed Amora Perfumes and AromaSciences; with the aims of restoring an artistic vision to perfumery and also of creating the best perfumes in the world for an international audience.

George Dodd - Brief Informal CV

George Dodd is one of the best-known scientists working on the sense of smell. But he is much more than just a scientist. Since he was a child in Ireland and discovered that he could detect all kinds of smells long before other people could, smells and smelling have been the passion of his life. Whilst he was still at the High School Dublin in the 1950’s, he began training as a perfumer. During the course of his study for a chemistry degree at Trinity College Dublin, in the early 1960’s, he continued this training in perfumery and also undertook research work on the sense of smell, including an early interest in electronic noses. His thesis project was concerned with the chemistry of essential oils. On graduation, he was offered positions in the international perfumery industry but elected to take a course which offered greater challenges.

In 1965 he worked in Oxford as a technician for the pioneering biochemist Hans Krebs. Later that year he began research in molecular enzymology at Oxford under the direction of George Radda and this led to a D.Phil. in 1968. He then joined the Molecular Biophysics Unit in Unilever plc under the direction of Dennis Chapman. During the following three years Dodd and colleagues produced the first paper on artificial nose technology as well as work on biological membranes relevant to odour sensing mechanisms. He was also involved with many product programmes across a wide variety of areas – foods, drinks, cosmetics, detergents, perfumes, flavours, - which had in common an interest in the sense of smell.

Dodd joined the University of Warwick in 1971 as a lecturer in biochemistry in the department of chemistry. He also formed in 1971 the Warwick Olfaction Group at the University, and he remained as its director until he left the University in 1994. During this period, this multidisciplinary group had an exemplary record of fund-raising and it was the only smell research group in the UK. As shown in the accompanying document, Dodd and colleagues opened-up new areas of olfactory science during this period and are recognized as pioneers in these major research themes.

During this academic phase, Dodd continued his industrial interests and was one of the first academics to form a company on a Science Park. Osmotherapy ltd, a pioneer of scientific aromatherapy, started at the Warwick Science Park in 1988. It is now part of Kiotech Int plc. He also ran a successful scientific consultancy company, Scientific & Technical Consultants Ltd, with a colleague, Dr. H. Jenkins. Dodd was also a consultant to several multinational companies and organizations including the MOD; Unilever, and other companies with an interest in the sense of smell. Dodd was instrumental in creating several TV and radio programmes concerned with the sense of smell.

Also during his academic period Dodd maintained his interest in perfumery, had a unique collection of odorants in his laboratory, and worked as a professional perfumer and smell consultant. He organized possibly the first series of public courses on perfumery, ever, as part of the University’s extramural activities. In 1978 he opened a perfume studio in Stratford-upon-Avon and started a unique business in which he created individual perfumes for clients. Having established the technical and commercial success of this business, he had to put the business ‘on ice’ because of the burgeoning demands of his research group, which by then numbered twenty workers. Later this year, he will resume, in a new format, the unique business of creating personal perfumes for an international audience.

In 1994 Dodd moved to the Highlands of Scotland as part of his philosophy of lifestyle. He formed the company Pheromones ltd which is now part of Kiotech Int plc. He also worked as a senior research fellow in the Highlands Psychiatric Research Group at Craig Dunain Hospital. He introduced this group to the idea of breath tests and he was instrumental in getting funds for this group which have led to the first commercial breath test for monitoring schizophrenia. He worked as a consultant for Lifetime Sciences ltd, and developed human pheromone fragrances for this company. In 1996, he became a founding director, along with Robert Page and William Campbell, of Kiotech Int plc, the first biotechnology company in the world specialising in the sense of smell. Later that year Kiotech began trading on ofex. Kiotech now has 3 successful products and research is advanced on other products (see www.Ultrabite.com).

George Dodd – Key Publications

George Dodd has been a perfumer and also a pioneer in olfactory research for over 30 years. He and his colleagues have made key discoveries in several areas. For convenience, the 3 key publications in each of the following areas are cited.

Molecular Mechanisms

Presence of Membrane Particles in Freeze-Etched Bovine Olfactory Cilia
B P Menco, G H Dodd, M Davy & L H Bannister
Nature 263, 597-599 (1976)
The first visualization of olfactory receptor proteins

Evidence for the Specific Involvement of cyclic-AMP in the Olfactory Transduction Mechanism
A Menevse, G H Dodd & T M Poynder
Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 77, 671-677 (1977)
One of the first papers identifying an enzyme basis for olfactory transduction

The Effect of Concanavalin A on the Rat Electro-Olfactogram. Differential Inhibition of Odorant Response
S G Shirley, E H Polak, R A Mather & G H Dodd
Biochem. J. 245, 175-184 (1987)
First mapping of a specific olfactory receptor using chemical modification methods

Electronic Nose Technology

Small Molecule-Lipid Membrane Interactions and the Puncturing Theory of Olfaction
R J Cherry, G H Dodd & D Chapman
Biochim. Biophys. Acta. 211, 409-416 (1970)
First demonstration of odorant-induced electrical changes in lipid bilayer membranes

Analysis of Discrimination Mechanisms in the Mammalian Olfactory System Using a Model Nose
K Persaud & G H Dodd
Nature, 299, 352-355 (1982)
First description of an electronic nose system

The Design of an Artificial Olfactory System
J Gardner, P Bartlett, G H Dodd & H Shurmer
In ‘Chemosensory Information Processing’ – (ed. D. Schild), Springer-Verlag, pp 131-175 (1990)
First formal description of an industrially useful electronic nose

Olfactory Psychology

Unconscious Odour Conditioning in Human Subjects
M D Kirk-Smith, C Van Toller & G H Dodd
Biol. Psychology 17, 221-231 (1983)
First experimental demonstration of this important phenomenon in perfumery and odour science

Skin Conductance and Subjective Assessments Associated with the Odour of Androstanone
S Van Toller, M Kirk-Smith, N Wood, J Lombard & G H Dodd
Biol. Psychology 16, 85-107 (1983)
First demonstration that anosmic subjects can detect the odour signal – without being aware of it

‘Ageing and the Sense of Smell’
S Van Toller, G H Dodd & A Billing
Charles C Thomas, publishers, USA, (1985)
The biggest study, to 1985, of a neglected area of olfaction which is important in clinical medicine

Psychology of Perfumery

The Biology and Psychology of Perfumery
G H Dodd & C Van Toller
Perfumer & Flavorist 8, 1-14 (1983)
The first description of perfumery phenomena in terms of modern molecular biology and psychology

‘Perfumery: The Psychology and Biology of Fragrance’
(eds) S Van Toller & G H Dodd
Chapman & Hall, (1988)
The proceedings of the world’s first international conference on the Psychology of Perfumery

‘Fragrance: The Psychology and Biology of Perfume’
(eds) S Van Toller & G H Dodd
Elsevier, (1992)
The proceeding of the second international conference on the Psychology of Perfumery

GHD
October 2002