physicist, lecturer at Université Côte d'Azur

Institut de Chimie de Nice (UMR CNRS 7272)
Equipe Arômes-Parfums-Synthèse-Modélisation

http://univ-cotedazur.fr/labs/icn/fr/equipes/APSM/page.html

Recruited in 1988 as a lecturer at the University of Nice, she carried out her research in various laboratories, including the Biophysics laboratory, before joining the Laboratory of Bioactive Molecules and Aromas Chemistry (LCMBA) in 2007. There she pursued work in quantum molecular modeling applied to molecules of exobiological interest. With the restructuring of chemistry research in Nice, she was then attached to the Institut de Chimie de Nice (ICN), a CNRS Mixed Research Unit (UMR 7272), within the Arômes Parfums Synthèse Modélisation team. In 2013 she participated in the establishment of the transdisciplinary axis "Odorants-Odeurs-Olfaction" of the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis and in the creation of the CNRS Research Group of the same name (GdR-CNRS O3). She is in charge with the ethnologist Arnaud Halloy of the Laboratory of Anthropology and Clinical, Cognitive and Social Psychology (LAPCOS - EA7278) of the structuring at the national level of the theme "Smells and Cultures". She then started a research on multimodal perception involving odors: this was the beginning of the ODOJazz project, a multidisciplinary collaboration between the ICN and the LAPCOS.

The idea was given to her by her musical practice. With a classical background (violin, piano, then opera singing), she then turned to jazz, a style she approaches through singing. She then imagined organizing scented jazz concerts, where the olfactory sensation completes the different scenes by means of several fragrances diffused successively in the room, "imaging" various atmospheres. The preparation of the fragrant mixtures is entrusted to two perfumers from Grasse, from the company "Expressions Parfumées", with whom the researcher and the musicians will work. A statistical treatment of the answers collected by means of a questionnaire developed by researchers in experimental psychology (of the LAPCOS) is then carried out.

This first multidisciplinary and exploratory research then led to a more ambitious project focused on the exploration of multimodal perception of music and smell. A funding obtained from the university within the framework of the IDEX allows the equipment of a sensory analysis room within the platform "Complexity and Cognition Lab" (CoCoLab) installed at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme Sud-Est (https://mshs.univ-cotedazur.fr/plateforme-cocolab). A doctoral thesis is being prepared by Roxane Bartoletti (see "team").