At the World Perfumery Congress (WPC) 2024, the American Society of Perfumers (ASP) will announce the recipients of two awards: The Lifetime Achievement Award and the William Lambert Award (Service to the Society).
Master perfumer John V. Pascale will be receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award, while vice president, senior technical perfumer Susan Arslaner will be receiving the William Lambert Award.
The award ceremony will be held at the ASP's booth (#148) on the expo hall floor on Tuesday, June 25, following the conference sessions. with be presented to John Pascal at the event.
John V. Pascale, Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
John Pascale has been in the fragrance industry for 55 years. Pascale started working in the flavor and fragrance industry in 1968 for IFF as a research development chemist. He created new flavor and fragrance molecules here, holding several patents for these chemicals. While at IFF he isolated, identified and synthesized the “lachrymatory factor" in onions, for which he has a patent.
He holds a master's in organic chemistry from Steven’s Institute of Technology. From 1968 until 1971 he studied advanced chemistry at Seton Hall University.
In 1975, Pascale accepted a position as technical director at Alpine Aromatics, where he trained as an apprentice perfumer. During his 18 years at Alpine, Pascale created many winning fragrances and achieved senior perfumer status. In 1977, he became a member of the American Society of Perfumers.
In 1993, Pascale started his company, Libenn Aroma where he worked in creative perfumery, product development, sales and marketing. In 2003, he joined Agilex Fragrances as VP of Perfumery. He has created fragrances for multi-national companies and used his valuable industry contacts to open numerous opportunities for Agilex. A few years later, in 2006, Pascale was a WPC speaker in Cannes.
In 2007, he became one of the founders of Ascent Aromatics. As president and creative director, with 40 years of experience, the company grew beyond expectations. Ascent Aromatics merged with Phoenix Ingredients in 2018, to form Phoenix Fragrance. Pascale is still passionate about his work and continues to create fragrances at Phoenix.
During John Pascale’s career, he was a very active member of the ASP holding several positions and remains an emertius member. In 2000 he was awarded The William Lambert Award for service to the ASP.
Pascale epitomizes the definition of perfumer. His career and passion for the craft of perfumery have merged his many talents and skills that helped build several successful companies in the fragrance industry. His dedication to mentoring has led him to sponsor three very successful perfumers, allowing John’s passion for fragrance creation to continue on through them for many years to come.
Susan Arslaner, William Lambert Award Recipient
Susan Arslaner is a highly experienced technical perfumer with over 40 years of experience in the fragrance industry. A first-generation Turk, she was born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey, a graduate of Eastside High School. Her fragrance journey began after 1981 when she obtained a degree in biology from the University of Montclair. Throughout her career, she has worked in various positions, starting as a lab technician compounding at PPF (now Givaudan). There, she was hired by Morrison “Pat” Paterson, a one-time president of the ASP. Then she worked as a perfumer's assistant at Bush, Boake, Allen (now IFF) for several legendary perfumers. Lastly she joined Dragoco, now Symrise in 1990. At this point, her journey into perfumery transitioned from perfumer's assistant to eventually her current role as Vice President/Sr. Technical Perfumer for Symrise North America. This opportunity came about from the faith and trust that her perfumer and mentor Claudette Belnavis showed her. Arslaner owes the opportunity to become a perfumer fully to this moment and the support of Claudette.
Aside from her technical role, Arslaner also is involved in creative endeavors. She has achieved success across various consumer fragrance categories and holds a particular fondness for creating all natural fragrances. Arslaner enjoys envisioning the story behind each fragrance, appreciating the contributions of every individual involved in its creation from the farmer who harvested the crops to the compounders preparing the fragrance oils. She has always pursued her motto that “one person’s success leads to a shared success”.
Arslaner's passion for fragrance is only rivaled by her love for history. She avidly collects fragrance memorabilia, including rare books, ephemera, vintage perfume bottles, and iconic consumer fragrance products of the past.
