What is the UK Semiochemistry Network?

Who or what are we? 

The Network comprises a varied group of people who are interested in the sense of smell - olfaction and other chemical senses. Our group covers mammalian olfaction (although insects are included where there is a link with humans or other vertebrates), physiology, psychology, philosophy and clinical olfaction and gustation.

The UK Semiochemistry Network was initiated in 1988 following Chemical Signals in Vertebrates V, the fifth in a series of major international congresses which was held that year for the first time outside North America, in Oxford. The principal outcome of the Network has been the annual British Chemical Signals in Vertebrates Workshop, which was and is much valued by participants on account of its informality and the welcome it provided to researchers in the field of vertebrate olfaction and chemical communication at all stages in their careers. Initiated and organised by Drs Eric Albone and Stephan Natynczuk at the Clifton Scientific Trust, the annual event continued until 1994, when developments in Stephan's career led to a temporary break in the series. However, in 1997 after a lapse of two years, Jenny Oliver and a group of others, including Eric Albone, were able to reinstate the Workshop series.

Our recent meetings have mostly been held at Gonville & Caius College in Cambridge, with the 2025 meeting hosted at Downing College. In 2026 the meeting will be combined with the UK Smell & Taste Disorders Symposium, bringing together leading voices across the spectrum of chemosensation and its clinical manifestations.