Eric Hansen has been named chief of the Preservation Research and Testing Division at the Library of Congress.
Hansen received a degree in chemical engineering from California State University in 1977, followed by a master’s degree in chemistry from the University of California, Irvine, in 1980 and a doctorate in 2000 from UCLA, where he focused on scientific analytical techniques applied to preservation problems. He was hired by the Getty Conservation Institute in 1985, moving from assistant scientist in 1987 to associate scientist in 1989, and retiring as a scientist and project manager in 2006. He is currently a research associate at UCLA.
Accomplishments in the field of preservation science earned Hansen the 2006 President’s Award from the American Institute for Conservation (AIC). He received the 2007 Kress Conservation Publications Fellowship through AIC’s Foundation. Past grants include a National Science Foundation Grant Award in the Anthropological and Geographic Sciences Program in 1995.
Hansen is a founder and former chair of AIC’s Research and Technical Studies Group, as well as of AIC’s Conservation Science Task Force. He served as special editor for Conservation Research and Technical Studies Papers in the Journal of AIC, and as past organizer and moderator for updates on Research and Technical Studies for AIC. He is well known for his national and international collaborations. Over the years, he has played a significant role in major conservation organizations. Hansen has also been recruited to be a member of many important committees, including the review committee for the SI Scholarly Studies Program for the Smithsonian and the committee overseeing the treatment and installation of the Star-Spangled Banner.
He has written more than 50 peer-reviewed journal articles covering a wide range of preservation topics, most notably research priorities and field trials in paper conservation, the effect of relative humidity on physical properties of modern vellum and implications for the optimum display and storage conditions.
