For the next ten years, Hansen worked as an aeronautical research scientist at NASA's Lewis Flight Propulsion Laboratory, while teaching mathematics at John Carroll University and Baldwin–Wallace College.

In 1959, Hansen joined the faculty of the University of Michigan, where he taught and wrote two textbooks about fluid mechanics, despite never having taken a formal class on the subject.

[8] These measures helped fund the construction of new buildings for agriculture, athletics, engineering, life sciences, nursing, psychology, and technology.

He was an advocate of increased minority recruitment and worked to improve the stature of Prairie View A&M University, a historically-black member of the Texas A&M System.

The university system's mission expanded during this time to include programs to help inventors, entrepreneurs, and elementary and secondary school administrators.