Rachel Herz, PhD, is a neuroscientist and a leading world expert on the psychological science of smell.  Dr. Herz is a TEDx 2024 and TED 2019 speaker, has published over 110 original research articles to date, and received many awards and grants. She is on the faculty at Brown University, has extensive research collaborations with scientists in the US and Europe, is a professional consultant to numerous international companies, and is frequently called upon as an expert witness in legal cases involving the chemical senses.

Dr. Herz is also actively involved in outreach, advocacy, and education on scent and taste-food-flavor with the principal non-profit organizations in this sector, and she is the incoming President of the International Society of Neurogastronomy (2026-2028).

Dr Herz is the author of a number of academic and popular science books including: the leading college textbook on Sensation & Perception (Oxford University Press, 2024); The Scent of Desire: Discovering Our Enigmatic Sense of Smell (Harper Collins, 2008), which was selected as a finalist for the “2009 AAAS Prize for Excellence in Science Books”; That’s Disgusting: Unraveling the Mysteries of Repulsion (W.W. Norton & Co, 2012), a New York Times Book Review “Editor’s Choice”; and Why You Eat What You Eat: The Science Behind Our Relationship with Food (W.W. Norton & Co, 2018), which was a finalist for the “2018 Readable Feast Awards” and ranked among the “Best Food Books of 2018” by The Smithsonian and The New Yorker.