Chandler Burr

Chandler Burr is a journalist and author whose writing moves between science, biography, and the culture of perfume. The Emperor of Scent follows biophysicist and fragrance critic Luca Turin as he advances a controversial theory about how the sense of smell works. Random House published the book as a nonfiction account of both Turin's scientific argument and the institutional resistance around it, drawing on biology, chemistry, and physics without losing sight of personality and obsession. Burr later wrote The Perfect Scent and became a professional scent critic, extending his role as an interpreter of an industry usually described through marketing or personal taste. His work on Turin turns an abstract dispute about olfaction into a narrative about evidence, reputation, and creative dissent.