Dr Ian Hanson is an archaeologist with 30 years of operational, research and management experience, spending more than 17,000 hours in the field. Undertaking investigations concerning cultural heritage, atrocity crimes, recovery of war dead and victims of disasters, he provides evidence as an expert witness.

Lecturing and researching at Bournemouth University, UK since 2001, he has published widely, developing scientific processes to successfully locate and recover the missing, and further investigative effectiveness.

Since 1997 he has undertaken investigations for the United Nations (UN) and other agencies and governments, including the International Criminal tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).

He assists governments in building national capacity, training and investigation programs, developing interdisciplinary capacity and interagency collaboration to coordinate the location, recovery, and identification of the Missing. Reviewing investigation processes to provide solutions and improve success rates, he has worked closely with families and communities to progress the finding of their relatives. He contributes to policy and legislation development to improve the prevention, protection and investigation of atrocity crimes, and the recovery of the Missing.

A former reservist in the British Army, he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences (AAFS), and member and panellist of the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists (MCIfA). He is DPAA certified as a Scientific Recovery Expert (SRE), and joined Terra Search in 2024.