Vasco Fontes Marques da Silva, Biomedical Engineer and Fragrance Neuroscience Technology Specialist within Iberchem’s New Technologies Department, will introduce our investigation program Wavemotion, aimed at scientifically evaluating the impact of fragrance on human psychology and physiology at the Barcelona Perfumery Congress 2023.

In this short interview, Vasco spills the beans on the latest updates of Wavemotion and on his presentation.

This year Iberchem is presenting the Neuroscience of Scent at BPC, can you tell us about Iberchem’s Wavemotion programme?

Wavemotion is our neuroscientific programme dedicated to the study of emotions in olfactory perception and, in a broader sense, the way the brain responds to various odours. This programme also adds value to our in-house fragrances through advocating emotional claims supported by the latest neuroscientific research.

How would you like Wavemotion to advance Iberchem’s progression in the functional fragrance market?

The functional fragrance market has been showing increasing demanding, with customers requiring products that can positively impact them in their daily lives. Additionally, they also favour products that can support those claims with scientific evidence. To further develop Iberchem´s position as a significant player in the functional fragrance market, Wavemotion will expand Iberchem’s portfolio of fragrances with emotional attributes using accurate and innovative methodologies.

What do you think the future holds for Iberchem as they continue to develop their Wavemotion programme?

Iberchem will continue to seek market opportunities and strengthen the relationship with our customers by delivering an ever-increasing innovations around functional fragrances. This will be accomplished by assuring that the work is well-regarded in both the industrial and academic communities.

We’ve heard you are presenting at this year’s congress, can you give us a small insight into your presentation?

Without giving too much away, I will present recent work we have been developing in collaboration with researchers from the University of Lisbon. Our objective is to better understand brain’s temporal and spatial features while assessing malodours, Iberchem´s malodour neutralising technology and fragrances utilising this technology. This will significantly boost our understanding around hedonic perception of odour neutralising processes.