The Growing Impact of the UC Davis Sensory Hub

The aroma of a glass of chardonnay. The crunch of a potato chip. Taste, smell, touch, sound and sight all influence what people enjoy, buy and trust. For decades, the University of California, Davis, has helped researchers and industry better understand those experiences through sensory science, the study of how people perceive the world through their senses.

Through the UC Davis Hub for Sensory and Consumer Science, researchers, students, alumni and industry professionals are coming together to continue that work and strengthen connections across the field.

The hub, launched in 2023, explores how the senses influence behavior and preferences. Julien Delarue, associate professor in sensory and consumer science, helped create the hub to build a stronger community around sensory science at UC Davis and around the world.

“Our senses are our first window into the world, and as consumers, it drives our behaviors, choices and our emotions and well-being, and sensory science has the tools to answer so many questions regarding the drivers of preferences,” Delarue said. “UC Davis is an iconic institution in the field of sensory and consumer science. For me, what is very important about the hub is the connection with other colleagues on campus and beyond.”

Innovative contributions

UC Davis has trained generations of scientists who went on to work across industries ranging from food and wine to health and consumer products.

Among them is Distinguished Professor Hildegarde Heymann of the Department of Viticulture and Enology, who is retiring this year after a 40-year career in sensory science. Heymann earned both her master’s degree and Ph.D. from UC Davis and later co-authored “Sensory Evaluation of Food,” one of the field’s most widely used textbooks.

This year, the hub’s annual conference honored Heymann’s career while also bringing together three generations of UC Davis sensory scientists: Heymann; her predecessor, Ann Noble, retired UC Davis professor who developed the internationally known Wine Aroma Wheel; and Heymann’s successor, Ha Nguyen, who joined UC Davis last year as an assistant professor specializing in applied sensory science.

“In the end, it’s about the students we send out into industry and what they end up doing, especially on the food side where sensory science is crucially important,” Heymann said. “Everything in the grocery store has seen a sensory scientist before it got there and we need people to do that work.”

Building connections

The hub has already become a place for collaboration between researchers and industry professionals around the state and world. Delarue said they’ve hosted visiting graduate students from Brazil and South Korea to study how culture, environment and personal habits influence sensory perception and consumer preferences. Research projects have used the sensory theater and the high-tech sensory immersive room at the Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science to better understand how people experience products in real-world settings.

Hub leaders also hope to expand mentorship opportunities for students and early-career researchers and create a distinctive collection on sensory science through the UC Davis Library that provides access to materials connected to the field’s history.

“There’s no other place in the world collecting sensory materials like we want to do at Davis,” said Becky Bleibaum, UC Davis alum and president of sensory intelligence at Dragonfly SCI, Inc.

Bleibaum said the hub can preserve the university’s long connection to sensory science while helping inspire where the field goes next, bringing greater awareness to its impact across everyday life and industry.

“Sensory is a small field; we’re talking about multi-billion dollar companies and they only have a few people in sensory and they don’t understand the power of it, so with the hub, we want to have a place where people can come and connect with others and start building their resources and show the value of what sensory can do,” Bleibaum said. “I think UC Davis is one of those fantastic universities that has a lot of impact.”