Chandler Burr

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Chandler Burr (born December 30, 1963) is an American journalist and author. Born in Chicago and raised in Washington, D.C., Burr was a Contributing Editor to U.S. News and World Report and has also written for The Atlantic on epidemiology and public health. Burr has a Masters in international economics and Japan studies from the Paul H. Nitze school/Johns Hopkins ^[1]. Burr began his journalism career in 1987 as a stringer in The Christian Science Monitor's Southeast Asia bureau ^[1]. He lives in New York City.

In 1993, Burr wrote a cover story, Homosexuality and Biology, for The Atlantic ^[2]. The story was the basis for Burr's first book, A Separate Creation (1996), which investigated sexual orientation research. The book was published by Hyperion, a subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company. Burr compared the clinical profiles of sexual orientation and handedness, claiming that the best analogy for homosexuality is left-handedness. ^[3]. The book's argument that sexual orientation is inborn prompted a call by Southern Baptists to boycott Disney films and theme parks ^[4].

In 1996 The Weekly Standard published Burr's article Why Conservatives Should Embrace the Gay Gene. It argued that scientific research that in Burr's view demonstrated that sexual orientation is biologically determined supports a conservative view of human nature. ^[5].

Burr's The Emperor of Scent (2003) was a book-length account of the French-Italian scientist Luca Turin's creation, through clues ranging from biophysical data to Chanel perfumes, of a theory about the functioning of the sense of smell. As a result of the book, The New Yorker proposed that Burr describe the creation of a perfume. Burr's March 2005 New Yorker article recounted Jean-Claude Ellena's year-long creation, in Paris and Grasse, of Hermès' Un Jardin sur le Nil. In February 2008, his most recent book, The Perfect Scent: A Year Inside the Perfume Industry was published. It describes a year observing Sarah Jessica Parker's creation, in New York City and under the licensing aegis of the perfume corporation Coty, of her perfume Lovely.

In August 2006 Burr became the perfume critic of The New York Times. ^[1] His column, Scent Notes, appears in T, The New York Times' style magazine. In it Burr rates perfumes on a five-star system. Stefano Tonchi, style editor of The New York Times Sunday Magazine and T, was quoted: “The Times will be the first to cover the fragrance industry and perfume in the way it does movies, books, and theater." Burr conducts a series of perfume dinners around the world, leading guests through food-based scent raw materials and fragrances reflected in a multi-course meal. Burr also writes narrative fiction and screenplays and has had one play produced. His first novel, "You Or Someone Like You," will be published by Ecco in summer 2009.

Burr also has written for The Advocate.[1]