Scent of the Vanishing Flora

Author Biography

Roman Kaiser studied chemistry at Winterthur Technical College, and in 1968 he joined the Givaudan Research Centre in Dübendorf near Zurich as a fragrance and flavor chemist. His work at Givaudan has focused on investigating and reconstituting essential oils, absolutes, and similar natural products, as well as synthesizing natural scent components; since 1975 he has worked primarily on the investigation and reconstitution of all types of natural scents using 'headspace' techniques including complementary analytical methods. During this time, he has investigated around 2700 natural scents from which he reconstituted 550 based on the individual synthetic scent constituents. Many of these scent reconstitutions have been used for the creation of famous fragrances. In over 80 cases, the results of these investigations have been published in specialist journals. He is also the author of a book entitled "The Scent of Orchids" summarizing the olfactory and chemical investigations of over 160 species. In fall 2006, his most recent book entitled 'Meaningful Scents around the World - Olfactory, Chemical, Biological, and Cultural Considerations' was published which summarizes his most important scent discoveries/experiences. In 1988, he was awarded with the Roche Research Prize and in 1995 the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich has bestowed on Roman Kaiser an honorary doctorate in natural sciences. In his spare time, Roman Kaiser is a passionate observer of all aspects of the natural world, though the 'plant scent' phenomenon is clearly of special significance to him.