Marlan R. Hansen, MD is the Brian F. McCabe Distinguished Chair and Professor of the Department of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery and Professor of Neurosurgery and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at the University of Iowa. He is the Co-Director of the Institute of Clinical and Translational Science at Iowa.

 Dr. Hansen received his Bachelor of Science degree from Brigham Young University and completed medical school at the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine.  He completed Otolaryngology residency and a postdoctoral research fellowship at the University of Iowa followed by a surgical fellowship in Neurotology/Skull Base Surgery at the House Ear Clinic/USC in Los Angeles. Following training, he joined the faculty at the University of Iowa.

 Dr Hansen’s research involves multidisciplinary approaches to basic, translational, and clinical investigations broadly related to auditory neurobiology and vestibular schwannoma tumorigenesis. He has a longstanding interest in the neurobiology of auditory neurons with a particular focus on understanding signaling pathways that govern neural survival, regeneration, and neurite guidance. His lab also uses tissue and bioengineering approaches to improve the ability of cochlear implants to restore complex auditory perception. In clinical research, he collaborates with a large multidisciplinary team to evaluate factors that enhance outcomes with cochlear implantation including hearing preservation, robotics-assistance and intraoperative electrophysiological measures. He is co-founder of IotaMotion, Inc that is developing robotics and related technology to improve cochlear implant performance.