In-person

Smell, Memory, and Thought with Dr. Venkatesh Murthy

2655 NW Market Street, Seattle, WA 98107

206.789.5707

In conjunction with the immersive sensory exhibition Fischersund: Faux Flora, Dr. Venkatesh Murthy explores the sense of smell and its powerful, often subconscious impact on human experience. His research on olfactory behaviors in mice offers insights into how the brain processes this elusive sense, connecting scientific findings to the way humans interact with scent in daily life.

Lilja Birgisdóttir, a founding member of the family-run art collective and perfumery behind the exhibition, will join Dr. Murthy on stage for a brief conversation following the lecture.

_{Students may attend this lecture for free. Please email programs@nordicmuseum.org for information on how to claim your free ticket.}

About the Lecture

"The sense of smell, or olfaction, is experienced as a thoughtless, low background hum by most humans, punctuated by rare salient events. At odds with this apparent grayscale experience, we spend a lot of resources on fragrant materials and aromatic food. While smells are frequently un-nameable, they nevertheless stir strong memories. For many of our planetary cohabitants, olfaction is life-critical, and a scientific examination of this sense in animals that care a lot about smell might also help us understand our own. In my research group, we study olfactory behaviors in mice and attempt to get at the brain basis of this puzzling and dazzling sense. I will discuss some of our research and try to relate the concrete experimental results in the laboratory to the richer and less tangible human experiences with smell." —Dr. Venkatesh Murthy

Speakers

Dr. Venkatesh Murthy

Venkatesh Murthy was born in a small industrial town in south India called Neyveli. After getting his Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, he came to the United States with a vague idea of combining engineering and biology.
Bio

Dr. Venkatesh Murthy

Venkatesh Murthy was born in a small industrial town in south India called Neyveli. After getting his Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, he came to the United States with a vague idea of combining engineering and biology.

A degree (M.S.E.) in Bioengineering from the University of Washington, Seattle led to his interest in neuroscience. A PhD in Physiology & Biophysics at the University of Washington then followed, and postdoctoral work at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, solidified his path in neuroscience research.

Murthy came to Harvard University as an Assistant Professor in 1999 and is now the Raymond Leo Erikson Life Sciences Professor of Molecular & Cellular Biology, as well as the Paul J. Finnegan Family Director of the Center for Brain Science. His research aims to shed light on how collections of neurons in the brain process information and give rise to behaviors, with a current emphasis on the sense of smell. He is keenly interested in the connections between artificial intelligence and brain science, and teaches an undergraduate course titled “Artificial and Natural Intelligence.” More about Venkatesh Murthy can be found in this piece from Current Biology Magazine.
Lilja Birgisdóttir

Lilja Birgisdóttir (b. 1983) studied photography at the Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague, Netherlands and received a BA in fine art from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík, Iceland in 2010. She is a member of Kling & Bang, an artist-run gallery in Reykjavík, where she takes part in selecting artists and curating exhibitions for the space.
Bio

Lilja Birgisdóttir

Lilja Birgisdóttir (b. 1983) studied photography at the Royal Academy of Arts, The Hague, Netherlands and received a BA in fine art from the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavík, Iceland in 2010. She is a member of Kling & Bang, an artist-run gallery in Reykjavík, where she takes part in selecting artists and curating exhibitions for the space.

In 2011 she founded Endemi, an art magazine about Icelandic contemporary art. Lilja has exhibited in Iceland and abroad, including solo exhibitions If your colors were like my dream at Rawson Projects (New York, 2015), The And with Jacqueline Falcone B&B (Miami, 2015), It’s Not You, It’s Me with Þula Gallery (Reykjavík, 2022), and Hlutskipti // Fated with Þula Gallery (Reykjavík, 2024). Lilja presented artwork at NADA New York art fair in 2015. Lilja’s mixed media artwork includes photography, performance, video art, sound art, and installations. Lilja was the author of The Vessel Orchestra, the opening act for the Reykjavík Arts Festival in collaboration with the 15 captains of the Reykjavík Harbour in May 2013. Lilja’s photographic work includes images for musicians Damien Rice and Sigur Rós. Lilja is a founding member of Fischersund perfumery art collective and is the brand ambassador while heading up creative collaborations. Lilja lives and works in Reykjavík, Iceland.