Hansson's research focuses on neuroethological aspects of insect-insect and insect-plant interactions. He is mainly studying insect olfaction, where his central questions are: How is semiochemical information (odors) detected by the antenna and processed in the insect brain, how did these detection and processing systems evolve, and how does olfaction guide insect behavior? He also compares these systems to other land-living arthropods, as the giant robber crab on Christmas Island.
Awards and honors
The Takasago International Research Award in Olfactory Science 1998
International Award of the Jean-Marie Delwart Foundation 2000
Letterstedt Prize of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2009
Fellow of the Saxonian Academy of Sciences 2010
Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences 2011
Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry
Honorary Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society 2011
Elected member of the Academia Europaea 2012
Elected member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters 2013
Silverstein-Simeone Award of the International Society of Chemical Ecology 2014
International Ellis Island Medal of Honor 2016
Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences 2016
Honorary Doctorate from the Faculty of Landscape Architecture, Horticulture and Crop Production Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU)
Honorary Doctorate from the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague
In 2017 he became a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
Gold Medal of the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry 2021
Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse, 2021
Foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences