Dr. Hanson got his start in fusion research as an undergraduate student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, working as a lab assistant for the MST experiment. He graduated from UW–Madison in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics, Engineering and Physics (AMEP).
After spending one more summer in the MST lab, Hanson moved to New York City and began his graduate studies with the Columbia University Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics (APAM). His doctoral thesis research focused on the application of Kalman filtering to feedback control of tokamak external kink instabilities and was performed at the HBT-EP experiment. Dr. Hanson presented an invited talk on this research at the 2008 APS Division of Plasma Physics meeting and received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Columbia University in 2009. In 2010, he received the APAM Department's Robert Simon Memorial Prize for his dissertation research.
Following his graduation, Dr. Hanson transitioned to the DIII-D National Fusion Facility as a DOE Fusion Energy Sciences postdoctoral fellow. He then became an associate research scientist with the APAM department in 2011, and continues to work at DIII-D.
Dr. Hanson remains strongly involved in tokamak stability research at DIII-D. He presently serves as a co-leader of the DIII-D "3D & Stability Physics" topical area, a member of the physics operator team that helps pilot DIII-D experiments, and a member of the run coordination team that facilitates the planning, scheduling, and execution of DIII-D experimental campaigns. He has coauthored over 50 journal publications and is active in the wider fusion community through regular participation in research conferences, involvement in community planning processes, and service as a peer reviewer.