 He was named the firm's research director and member of the board of directors in 1968, which he remained until his retirement in 1989.Ohloff's scientific work, which is documented in 228 publications and 111 patents, centered around ths structure elucidation and reactivity of terpenes, the industrial syntheses of odorants, and structure–odor correlations.He was the leading expert of empirical odor rules that predict the olfactory properties of new compounds, such as the ""triaxial rule of ambergris sensation"".