Marina Barcenilla, Doctoral Researcher in the School of Life Sciences, has been named an Academician of the Spanish Academy of Perfume and awarded a medal for her two decades of work as a perfumer and through her research project ‘AromAtom’.
The Spanish Academy of Perfume is a cultural not-for-profit foundation devoted to the advancement of fragrance and perfume as an artistic discipline, and to the study of its influence and potential within other fields. On 7 July, Marina Barcenilla was officially named one of their Academicians and given a medal for her two decades of work as a Nose/Perfumer, and for her approach to science communication and outreach using the sense of smell. The ceremony took place at the Paraninfo of the University of Alacalá in Spain, an exclusive room reserved for solemn occasions such as the Cervantes Literature Prize.
Marina has been working as a Perfumer and Nose for cosmetic and fragrance brands, as well as a mentor and teacher of perfumery for more than two decades. In 2017, during her second year of undergraduate study for a Planetary Science and Astronomy degree, she discovered her passion for science communication and outreach, and in particular, for trying to engage with non-scientific and young audiences in a way that was creative and fun.
Through her PhD in Astrobiology at the University of Westminster, Marina continued to deliver activities for her project ‘AromAtom: Discover the Smell of Space’, as a way to combine her long career in the fragrance industry with her newly-found passion for science and communication. The project uses the olfactory sense as a tool to engage the imagination, where participants are taken on a space journey during which they discover the universe by smelling a number of odours related to the composition of the planets and moons of the Solar System, and to the descriptions provided by the Apollo and ISS astronauts.
Since founding the project, she has delivered AromAtom activities, talks and events at UK and Spanish schools, museums, science conferences in the USA and science festivals in the UK, including at the Natural History Museum’s Lates series.
In 2019, the Spanish Academy of Perfume (Fundación Academia del Perfume) invited her to speak at one of their events, where she shared how she had used her perfumery career to pioneer a new way of science communication and public engagement using the smells of space that she had created using her own astronomy research. She also discussed innovative ways of using olfaction and the sense of smell. Following this and many other interactions, the Academy and its patrons selected Marina to become one of their Academicians.
Talking about being selected as an Academician, Marina said: “Receiving such a distinguished honour was completely unexpected, I never imagined that something like this could happen to someone like me! In addition to recognising my work as a perfumer and fragrance educator, it feels good to have my innovative ideas known around the world. When I founded AromAtom in 2017, I didn’t know if my way of integrating the sense of smell with the scientific and educational world would work, but it’s fair to say that it has now surpassed all my expectations.”
Find out more about research degrees at the University of Westminster.
