He is Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Professor at the Kavli Institute of Nanoscience at Delft University of Technology and scientific director of QuTech.

He was recruited for the Japan Prizewinners Programme, a one-year postgraduate course for outstanding Dutch graduates with a university master's degree.

In 2005 he graduated in a PhD in physics from Delft University of Technology, supervised by Leo Kouwenhoven.

During 2005–2007 he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara, supervised by David Awschalom.

Jointly with Stephanie Wehner and David Elkouss, Hanson has published a roadmap towards a future quantum Internet[10] From 2010 until 2015, Hanson was elected member of De Jonge Akademie (the Young Academy)[11] of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW).