Chandler Burr, the New York Times perfume critic from 2006-2010, is the Director and Curator of the Center of Olfactory Art at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City.
Burr is the author of the two definitive popular books about the perfume industry. "The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry in Paris & New York" (2007) tells two parallel stories, the first a year Burr spent for The New Yorker magazine behind the scenes at Hermès watching legendary perfumer Jean-Claude Ellena create an Hermès fragrance, the second a year inside Coty with Sarah Jessica Parker as she directed the making of her first perfume. "The Emperor of Scent: A True Story of Perfume, Obsession, and the Last Mystery of the Senses" (2003) is about a genius of biophysics and perfume.
Burr’s first book, "A Separate Creation” (1997), was based on his Atlantic cover story, "Homosexuality and Biology.” His novel, "You or Someone Like You," was published in 2009.
Burr began his journalism career as a stringer at the Christian Science Monitor's Southeast Asia bureau in Manila, then earned a Masters in International Economics & Japan studies from the Paul H. Nitze School/Johns Hopkins. He has also studied international relations at l'Institut d'études politiques in Paris and Chinese history at Min Zu Xue Yuen (Central Institute of Foreign Nationalities) in Beijing.
Burr hosts interactive Scent Dinners around the world; these masterclasses in gourmand scents are collaborations with the world’s best chefs, from Simon Lau Cederholm of Aquavit in Brasília, Vito Mollica, Ex. Chef of the Four Seasons, Florence, Samuel Benne of Lapérouse, Paris, to Fabrice Guisset at Las Ventanas in Cabo, Mexico, and Nicholas Schearer, Ex. Chef of the Four Seasons, Bangkok.
Courtesy of Chandler Burr's Official Site.