Bill S. Hansson

Bill Hansson
Bill Hansson

Bill S. Hansson (born 1959) is a Swedish neuroethologist. From June 2014 until June 2020, he was vice president of the Max Planck Society.[1]

Scientific career

Hansson studied biology at Lund University where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in biology in 1982. In 1988 he defended his PhD thesis in Ecology. From 1989 to 1990 he worked as postdoc at the University of Arizona and returned 1990 to a junior professorship in Lund. In 1992 he became Associate Professor and from 2000 until 2001 he was a Professor for Chemical Ecology at Lund University (2000). From 2001 he was Professor and Head of the Chemical Ecology department at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Alnarp, Sweden. He also served as vice dean for the Faculty of Landscape Planning, Horticulture, and Agriculture from 2003, until he was appointed Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena, Germany in 2006. He was head of the Department of Evolutionary Neuroethology.[2] until his retirement in 2025. Between 2014 and 2020 Hansson also served as Vice President of the Max Planck Society. He is now emeritus Director at the Jena institute. In 2025 he took up the position as Distinguished Professor at the Agricultural Genomics Institute in Shenzhen, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He also holds positions as Honorary Professor at the University of Jena, at the Nanjing Agricultural University and at Hainan University, and as emeritus Professor at SLU.

Hansson's research focuses on neuroethological aspects of insect-insect and insect-plant interactions. He is mainly studying insect olfaction,[3] 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?[4][5] He also compares these systems to other land-living arthropods, as the giant robber crab on Christmas Island.[6]

Awards and honors

Selected publications (out of ≈450)

  • Hansson, B. S., Ljungberg, H., Hallberg, E., Löfstedt, C. (1992). Functional specialization of olfactory glomeruli in a moth. Science 256:1313-1315. doi:10.1126/science.1598574
  • Schiestl, F.P., Ayasse, M., Paulus, H.F., Löfstedt, C., Hansson, B.S., Ibarra, F., Francke, W. (1999). Orchid pollination by sexual swindle. Nature 399:421-422. doi:10.1038/20829
  • Hansson, B.S. (Hrsg.) (1999). Insect Olfaction. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, ISBN 978-3-540-65034-8
  • Stensmyr, M. C., Urru, I., Celander, M., Hansson, B.S. (2002). Rotting smell of dead-horse arum florets. Nature, 420, 625–626. doi:10.1038/420625a
  • Wicher, D., Schäfer, R., Bauernfeind, R., Stensmyr, M. C., Heller, R., Heinemann, S. H., Hansson, B. S. (2008). Drosophila odorant receptors are both ligand-gated and cyclic-nucleotide-activated cation channels. Nature, 452(7190), 1007–1011. doi:10.1038/nature06861
  • Stökl, J., Strutz, A., Dafni, A., Svatos, A., Doubský, J., Knaden, M., Sachse, S., Hansson, B., Stensmyr, M. C. (2010). A deceptive pollination system targeting drosophilids through olfactory mimicry of yeast. Current Biology, 20, 1846–1852. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2010.09.033
  • Grosse-Wilde, E., Kuebler, L., Bucks, S., Vogel, H., Wicher, D., Hansson, B. (2011). Antennal transcriptome of Manduca sexta. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108, 7449–7454. doi:10.1073/pnas.1017963108
  • Hansson, B., Stensmyr, M. C. (2011). Evolution of insect olfaction. Neuron, 72(5), 698–711. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2011.11.003
  • Stensmyr, M. C., Dweck, H., Farhan, A., Ibba, I., Strutz, A., Mukunda, L., Linz, J., Grabe, V., Steck, K., Lavista Llanos, S., Wicher, D., Sachse, S., Knaden, M., Becher, P. G., Seki, Y., Hansson, B. S. (2012). A conserved dedicated olfactory circuit for detecting harmful microbes in Drosophila. Cell, 151(6), 1345–1357. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2012.09.046
  • Chang, H., Cassau, S., Krieger, J., Guo, X., Knaden, M., Kang, L., Hansson, B. S. (2023). A chemical defense deters cannibalism in migratory locusts. Science 380, 6644, 537-543 doi:10.1016/j.cub.2023.11.017
  • Jiang, X., Dimitriou, E., Grabe, V., Sun, R., Chang, H., Zhang, Y., Gershenzon, J., Rybak, J., Hansson, B. S., Sachse, S. (2024). Ring-shaped odor coding in the antennal lobe of migratory locusts. Cell 187 (15), 13973-3991.e24 doi:10.1016/j.cell.2024.05.036
  • Pal Mahadevan, V., Galagovsky, D., Knaden, M., Hansson, B. S. (2025). Preference for and resistance to a toxic sulfur volatile opens up a unique niche in Drosophila busckii. Nature Communications 16, 767 doi:10.1038/s41467-025-55971-2
  • Khallaf, M.A., Hart, D.W., Luo, W. et al. (2026) A queen odour mediates reproductive suppression in a eusocial mammal. Nature 656, 390–398 doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10772-5

Books

  • Hansson, B.S. (Hrsg.) (1999). Insect Olfaction. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg, ISBN 978-3-540-65034-8
  • Hansson, Bill S. (2022). Smelling to Survive: The Amazing World of Our Sense of Smell. Hero (8 Aug. 2022) (available in 12 languages)

References

  1. ↑ The team around Martin Stratmann MPG Info, June 5, 2014
  2. ↑ MPI for Chemical Ecology Website
  3. ↑ Olfactory Research Is a Precision Business Archived 2018-07-12 at the Wayback Machine MaxPlanckResearch Magazine 3 /2009
  4. ↑ Molecular messages from the antennae MPG News, April 15, 2011
  5. ↑ Fruit Fly Nose Says Steer Clear Of Deadly Food National Public Radio USA, Dec. 6, 2012
  6. ↑ A Nose for Survival Archived 2013-06-10 at the Wayback Machine Science Now, Jan. 26, 2005
  7. ↑ The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters elected new members on December 16, 2013 Archived February 4, 2014, at the Wayback Machine Pressmeddelande 17.12.2013, Societas Scientiarum Fennica
  8. ↑ ISCE Home Page. Retrieved on December 19, 2014.
  9. ↑ The 2016 Ellis Island Medal of Honor recipients Archived 2016-06-08 at the Wayback Machine, Website of the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations - NECO. Retrieved on May 19, 2016.
  10. ↑ Bill S. Hansson - Elected: 2016 Archived 2022-08-11 at the Wayback Machine Webpage of the African Academy of Sciences. Retrieved on August 11, 2022.
  11. ↑ Honorary doctors at SLU Archived 2017-01-17 at the Wayback Machine, Website of the SLU. Retrieved on January 17, 2017.
  12. ↑ ČZU ocenila významného vědce, Website of the Česká Zemědělská Univerzita v Praze. Retrieved on December 7, 2017.
  13. ↑ "Bill S. Hansson". German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. Retrieved 26 May 2021.
  14. ↑ Akademiens guldmedalj Website of the Royal Swedish Agricultural Academy. Retrieved on June 1, 2021
  15. ↑ "Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse für Prof. Dr. Bill Hansson" Archived 2021-12-07 at the Wayback Machine, Website of the Thuringian Government. Retrieved on June 1, 2021
  16. ↑ "Bill Hansson elected foreign member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences" Website of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. Retrieved on December 7, 2021
  17. ↑ "icipe@50 Achievement Awards" Website of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe). Retrieved on August 21, 2026
  18. ↑ "Bill Hansson awarded honorary professorship by Nanjing Agricultural University" Website of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. Retrieved on November 3, 2023
  19. ↑ "Medals for Distinguished Service awarded to Bill Hansson, Jenny Hedenby and Aida Bargues-Tobella" Announcement of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Retrieved on November 8, 2024
  20. ↑ "Bill Hansson received the ISCE Silver Medal" News and Awards page of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. Retrieved on September 10, 2025
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