Leslie Kay: The Hidden Science of How Smell, Breath & Memory Shape the Brain

Join Smell Expert Sofia Ehrich as she interviews Leslie Kay, professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Chicago and member and former director of the University’s Institute for Mind and Biology. In this interview, they discuss Leslie's research in olfaction primarily with rats and how it has evolved over her career.Leslie Kay is a professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Chicago and a member and former director of the University’s Institute for Mind and Biology. Her research addresses the roles that personal history, present context, breath, and chemistry play in shaping dynamic responses in brains and behavior centered around the sense of smell. Her laboratory focuses on brain dynamics through neural oscillations that engage olfaction, taste, memory and respiratory systems. New work from her laboratory also examines sex differences in olfactory physiology and behavior. While she primarily uses rats as a model system, she is now collaborating with colleagues to address neural questions in human olfaction and cognitive health. Dr. Kay has served on numerous advisory boards for the NIH, NSF and AChemS. She comes to the sense of smell with a background in Philosophy and Mathematics from St. John’s College (Santa Fe, NM) and a PhD in Biophysics from UC Berkeley. She is a fierce advocate for liberal education and reading real books. At the University of Chicago, she also serves as Deputy Dean for Research in the Social Sciences. She is working on a popular book on smell under contract with Basic Books and Penguin UK (expected publication late 2027).