Charles Spence

Professor Charles Spence is a world-famous experimental psychologist with a specialization in neuroscience-inspired multisensory design. He has worked with many of the world’s largest companies across the globe since establishing the Crossmodal Research Laboratory (CRL) at the Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford University in 1997. Prof. Spence has published over 1,350 academic articles and edited or authored, 17 books including, in 2014, the Prose prize-winning “The perfect meal”, and the international bestseller “Gastrophysics: The new science of eating” (2017; Penguin Viking) – winner of the 2019 Le Grand Prix de la Culture Gastronomique from Académie Internationale de la Gastronomie. His popular science book “Sensehacking” was published in 2021, and “Digital Dining”, with Prof. Carlos Velasco, in 2025.

Much of Prof. Spence’s work focuses on the design of enhanced multisensory food and drink experiences, through collaborations with chefs, baristas, mixologists, chocolatiers, perfumiers, and the food and beverage, and flavour and fragrance industries. Prof. Spence has worked extensively in the world of multisensory experiential wine and coffee and has also worked extensively on the question of how technology will transform our dining/drinking experiences in the future.

See short video at: Charles Spence – Sensploration (FoST 2016). https://vimeo.com/170509976.

And profile at: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/02/accounting-for-taste.

https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/multisensory-perception

“The Perfect Meal” | Talks at Google: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgUVjKsP_wc

AEG Tasteology: http://www.aeg.co.uk/taste/inspiration/tasteology/

Neurocuisine, The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/video/2016/may/23/neuro-cuisine-exploring-the-science-of-flavour-video

Multisensory Experience and Coffee – RecoSymposium: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVKabsudi1I

Unexpected connections — pleasure and pain: Charles Spence at TEDxUHasselt: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVt-QrNFZso

Flavour Sense Nation short videos: Prof. Charles Spence – Flavour SenseNation

http://flavoursense.com/ask-the-scientist/prof-charles-spence

Entomophagy in our world, TEDxCityUniversityLondon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQEX-kMpz-4

Shitsukan (2019) Japan https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLoDvHIx6ItiODbZgBWEDbWCC-N3h8hW9o

Cambridge Biological Society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dZSlSuRs34

Crick Institute Masterchef episode: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001m7bl/masterchef-series-19-episode-20

Pink Lady Sensploration video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5ynpm9issg

Spence Bar Academy Bulgaria https://www.facebook.com/BarAcademyBulgaria/videos/gastrophysics-a-multisensory-approach-to-cocktails-by-prof-charles-spencesofiaba/361034184762577/

Spence LSE Gastrophysics talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB_B9hfsNXI

Spence Going Underground TV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56e5UZJreg0

For multisensory packaging video, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tV3SRKFpEsg

Nuffield Triannual Food Conference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePguEqCJ7Ks

http://www.blog.generalmills.com/2016/09/podcast-making-food-your-five-senses-will-love/

See also: BBC SERIES – The Uncommon Senses; Series 1 Dinnertime: A Multisensory Extravaganza! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b08k5zqw

Enhancing Multisensory Experiences: Perspectives from the Food & Beverage, and Flavor & Fragrance Industries | Listen Notes

https://hq.quikly.com/blog/the-psychology-of-fast-food-nostalgia.

“How Do I Turn Down the ‘Noise’?” podcast (2026): https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7470384278053437441

The research conducted at the Crossmodal Research Laboratory in Oxford has garnered widespread media attention across the globe, including in The Economist (February 4-10th, 2012, p. 74), and The Financial Times (3rd June, 2013, p. 14; http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6bc0fa04-c175-11e2-9767-00144feab7de.html#axzz2VEbNyXiR) and has been profiled in The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/11/02/accounting-for-taste). Over the last decade alone, Prof. Spence and the CRL have been featured in more than 3,000 newspaper articles, radio interviews, and television programs.

Prof. Spence frequently delivers consumer neuroscience lectures and courses to global companies, and business schools and schools of business administration, such as at Los Andes, Rosario University, and Javariana University in Colombia, the Saïd Business School, Oxford, and the Singapore Business School.

Prof. Spence has been awarded numerous national and international prizes for scientific excellence, including the 10th Experimental Psychology Society Prize, the British Psychology Society: Cognitive Section Award, the Paul Bertelson Award, recognizing him as the young European Cognitive Psychologist of the Year, and, the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany): ‘in recognition of past accomplishments in research and teaching’. In 2008, together with Dr. Max Zampini, he was awarded the 2008 IG Nobel prize for nutrition for his work on ‘the sonic crisp’

Contact details

Prof. Charles Spence, Independent Sensory Marketing Consultant, Department of Experimental Psychology, Life & Mind Building, University of Oxford South Parks Road

Oxford OX1 3EL, ENGLAND

Tel: +44-1865-271364; E-mail: [email protected]