in German Literature Studies and Philosophy in 2009 at the Humboldt University of Berlin with her thesis on causality in Leibniz and its relevance for theories of biological classification.
This combines historical and philosophical analyses with sociological, qualitative methods that include interviews with experts in neuroscience, psychology, chemistry, and the industry of perfumery.
A prime example is the research that went into the book Smellosophy,[4] in which she interviewed numerous neuroscientists such as Linda Buck, Stuart Firestein, philosophers including Barry C. Smith, winemaker Allison Tauziet, perfumers Harry Fremont and Christophe Laudamiel, sensory chemists such as Ann C. Noble, Avery Gilbert, as well as zoologists and biophysicists.
[17] Her publications[18] are clustered around two areas: (1) the perceptual and cultural dimensions of smell and its link to cognition, which brings theoretical analyses to the empirical exploration of three aspects of odor: its affective nature, its phenomenological structure, and its cross-modal influences with the other senses, and (2) the role of scientific expertise in laboratory-based neuroscience, focusing on how current advances in olfaction can contribute to the conceptual foundations of neuroscience.
By tracking the emergence, success, and decline of standard laboratory routines, her research investigates the cognitive and behavioral patterns that influence scientific decision-making.