Harry Lawless

Professor Lawless specializes in sensory evaluatiion of food and supervises the Food Science Department sensory testing facility. He teaches courses on sensory evaluation and flavor perception. His current research focus concerns taste and smell perception and methods for measuring food perception and acceptability.

Research Focus

My current research focus is on taste and smell perception and the measurement of food acceptability. Ongoing projects involve mineral tastes and oxidative interactions in foods, sensory test methods for measuring food acceptance and judgmental bias.

Outreach and Extension Focus

My extension focus is to provide professional training and updates to industrial workers in food and consumer products companies with regards to sensory test methods and statistical evaluation of sensory and consumer data. To this end I coordinate annual workshops and do the bulk of the presentations.

Teaching Focus

My instructional focus is to provide basic and advanced training in sensory evaluation of foods and consumer products and in flavor science. I also guest lecture in general food science courses and wines courses.

Areas of Expertise

• chemical senses
• food acceptance
• food science
• sensory evaluation
• sensory testing
• smell
• statistics
• taste

Graduate Fields

• Food Science and Technology
• Psychology

Selected Publications

Journal Publications

• Kurtz, A. J., Lawless, H. T., & Acree, T. E. (2010). The Cross-Adaptation of Green and Citrus Odorants. Chemosensory Perception. 3:149-155.
• Kurtz, A. J., Acree, T. E., & Lawless, H. T. (2009). Reference Matching of Dissimilar Binary Odor Mixtures. Chemosensory Perception. 2:186-194.
• Lubran, M. B., Lawless, H. T., Lavin, E., & Acree, T. E. (2005). Identification of metallic-smelling 1-octen-3-one and 1-nonen-3-one from solutions of ferrous sulfate. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 53:8325-8327.

Presentations and Activities

• The Impact of Vision on Odor Perception. Pangborn International Sensory Science Conference. September 2011. Ad Hoc Committee. Toronto, CA.
• The Impact of Vision on Odor Perception. Pangborn International Sensory Science Conference. September 2011. Ad Hoc Committee. Toronto, CA.