Luca Turin

Biophysicist (TED Speaker)

Luca Turin was born in 1953 in Beirut to Italian-Argentinian parents. Educated in France, Italy and the UK, he got a PhD in biophysics from University College London in 1978. From 1982 to 1992 he was on the staff of the French CNRS as a researcher, then Lecturer in Biophysics at UCL until 2000. In 2001 he became Chief Technical Officer of Flexitral, Inc. a molecule discovery company creating novel fragrance and flavor materials by rational design. In 2009 he returned to full-time science, first at MIT and lately at the Alexander Fleming Research Centre near Athens where he heads the Quantum Biology lab. He has written three books and been the subject of one. He writes a monthly column for the Swiss magazine NZZ Folio and is the perfume critic for Style Arabia. He has three children aged 13, 12 and <1 and lives with his wife and coauthor Tania Sanchez in a swank suburb of Athens.