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ABOUT
Anna
D'Errico
Neuroscientist turned science writer and olfactory artist. I specialize in smell and olfaction combining my scientific background with my artistic experience.
My name is Anna D’Errico and I am proficient in unconventional crossroads.
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As neuroscientist, published author and performer, after many years in science, on stage, and writing I decided to give it a turn: I needed a personal space to create and develop my own projects. Therefore, I am now freelance:
I work as science writer and science communicator, I give workshop on science communication and soft skills to grad-students and young researchers, I provide consultations on smell, olfaction and the use of scent in space, I design smell-projects and dance-theater performances including olfactory elements.
my background
​​​​​I am a neurobiologist by training, based in Frankfurt, Germany. After my PhD in neuroscience, I was at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA-ISAS), Trieste, Italy, where I conducted studies on olfaction and pheromones.
I moved to Frankfurt in 2010, and I worked for several years at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics and at the Goethe University.
The main focus of my research has been the olfactory sensory coding and the neural circuits in the brain cortex, so to say how the “smelling brain” works. Aside the wet lab I studied science communication and I soon started to write popular science features (mainly olfaction and neuroscience) contributing to magazines, scientific websites, and for my personal blog: Il senso perfetto – Perfect Sense Blog – it became a published book in 2019: Il senso
perfetto, mai sottovalutare il naso, Codice Edizioni (IT). This book has been shortlisted for the literary Galileo 2020 Award for science communication in Italy.
Meanwhile on stage…
I have artistic experience in dance and theatre, and around 2011 I started questioning the role and possibilities of the sense of smell in connection to performing arts.
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I made research on the aesthetical dimension and practical applications of scent in theatrical space (olfactive theatre) developing new performances and a training practice that includes scent and odors.
And here we are:
I work often on the intersections between science and art, merging my scientific background with my artistic practice. I am interested in the use of scent as creative tool as well as a medium to communicate science in a new immersive way.
What you find here
For details regarding my work as science writer and science communication go to The Science.
To know more about my artistic approach, performances and olfactory projects go to The Art.
If you are interested in olfaction and olfactory disfunction I set-up a miniguide with basic information, go to Anosmia.
Further contents on smell, olfaction, olfactory art and neuroscience will come on the new blog: Neurosmellist.
If you want to learn more about my workshop, courses, consultations or you want to invite me as speaker or for collaborations visit Workshop and Consultations or write to anna.derrico@neurosmellist.com
Bonus: My new book on Smell and Taste disorders is out (in Italian for now).
Scent is fleeting, ephemeral, changing constantly; it is the perfect metaphor of science, art, and life
CONTACTS
