Interview: Professor Daniel Strub

Thanks for joining us today, Daniel! Could you tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?

Thank you for having me – it’s a great pleasure to collaborate with IFEAT.

I’ve spent my whole life working with essential oils and aromatic extracts, generally with fragrances – both on the industrial side and the academic side. I’m a professor at Wrocław University of Science and Technology in Poland, where my group studies mostly natural complex substances, in terms of their activity, toxicology, and properties that are useful as active substances in various functional products, like cosmetics or household chemicals.

Tell us about your work with the IFEAT Academy.

I had the pleasure of co-creating one of the IFEAT Academy units that I think is quite important for the aroma trades – Unit 3: Anatomy and Physiology Principles for the Aroma Trades.

Because people who work within the industry often face questions from clients about the basics of aroma, olfactory, and taste principles in relation to the products that they are selling or promoting, the knowledge found in this unit matters. I think this is especially important as there is a lot of misinformation about the sense of smell and sense of taste online, and in the era of artificial intelligence – which is fed by whatever information flows through the internet – misconceptions can spread widely.

It’s essential to understand the fundamentals of the senses of smell and taste, and how these are integrated within the industry. The unit is designed not only to provide fundamentals regarding the senses themselves, but also the practical cues – how these senses integrate with your line of work.

What led you into the flavour and fragrance industry?

First, it was my education. I was always fascinated with chemistry. I have a chemical background – both my masters and PhD – and now my habilitation revolves around organic and bio-organic chemistry in toxicology. I was always fond of mostly volatile compounds, which have a nice smell. My work began with synthetics – making new molecules and fragrance discovery – and then it shifted towards natural products, and now I’m mostly involved in natural products.

My involvement with the industry started during the Covid pandemic, when I was introduced by Dr Władysław S. Brud to IFEAT and its Members, and we started collaborating, exchanging samples. During the time when I was involved in studies relating to Covid, I did quite a lot of research on essential oils and aromatic extracts from IFEAT Members. We had some good collaborations and remain involved in several joint endeavours.

What advice would you give for anybody who is about to begin working in this industry, who is beginning their studies?

Always try to understand the product that you are working with and its effects on people. When you are working with fragrance or taste molecules, remember that they are known molecules, and there’s quite a lot of research on each of them, even if it’s a single molecule or natural complex substance.