PeopleofSuperintelligence

Researcher

David Hanson

David Hanson is a roboticist who builds humanlike robots and AI systems for their movement and expression. He studied art, built an early humanoid head, and moved from Disney sculpture into robotics development. His work includes Frubber, K-Bot, Sophia, a neuro-symbolic controller, and open-source robotic arms. In 2019, he moved from CEO to chairman and chief creative officer. As of October 2026, he is founder and CEO of Hanson Robotics.

Now at
Hanson Robotics
Works
49
Citations
719
h-index
14
Badges

Publication numbers from OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

Timeline

  1. 1990s

    An early humanoid head

    He earns a BFA in film, animation and video at RISD and builds a remotely operated humanoid head in his own likeness in 1995. In the late 1990s, he joins Disney as a sculptor and moves into robotics development.

  2. 2002

    Frubber takes shape

    The first formulas for Frubber come together in 2002 as he experiments with elastic, porous polymers for humanlike robot faces.

  3. 2003–2007

    K-Bot and Hanson Robotics

    He founds Hanson Robotics in 2003 and builds K-Bot at UT Dallas with cameras behind its eyes and software that moves its polymer skin into expressions. He completes an arts-and-humanities doctorate at UT Dallas in 2007.

  4. 2013

    Moving to Hong Kong

    He moves to Hong Kong in 2013 and enters a local startup competition to secure a base for Hanson Robotics.

  5. 2017–2018

    Sophia and an alumni award

    Sophia becomes the first robot granted citizenship by a country in 2017. RISD gives Hanson its 2018 Alumni Award for Artistic Achievement.

  6. 2019

    A CEO handoff

    Hanson Robotics appoints Jeanne Lim as CEO in 2019, and he takes the chairman and chief creative officer roles.

  7. 2020–2022

    AI arms for social robots

    In 2020, he coauthors a neuro-symbolic arm controller for Sophia that combines machine perception, convolutional neural networks and symbolic AI. In 2022, he coauthors Open Arms, an open-source platform for humanlike robotic hands and arms with a development SDK and a grasping CNN.

  8. As of October 2026

    Founder and CEO

    As of October 2026, he is founder and CEO of Hanson Robotics. In 2025, he discusses My Robot Sophia, a documentary about his effort to create an AI-powered humanlike robot, with WBUR.

Career

  1. Since 2003Hanson RoboticsFounder, CEO
  2. 2025–2026King's College London
  3. The Walt Disney CompanySculptor

Education

  1. 2007University of Texas at DallasDoctorate
  2. Rhode Island School of DesignBFA

From the biography and OpenAlex affiliations (the years of papers that list the organization), so some years are approximate.

Most-cited works

  1. Design of Android type Humanoid Robot Albert HUBO2006 · IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) · 235 citations
  2. HEFES: An Hybrid Engine for Facial Expressions Synthesis to control human-like androids and avatars2012 · 2022 9th IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference for Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob) · 70 citations
  3. Development of an Advanced Respirator Fit-Test Headform2013 · Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene · 52 citations
  4. Piezoelectric Actuation and Sensing for Facial Robotics2006 · Ferroelectrics · 42 citations
  5. The IbnSina Center: An augmented reality theater with intelligent robotic and virtual characters2009 · IEEE RO-MAN · 34 citations

From OpenAlex, as of 19 October 2026.

  1. 14% of AI doctorate holders from 2010 to 2016 founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after graduationIncludes David Hanson. We estimate how often AI doctorate holders founded or led a company or lab by 10 years after their doctorate, and how the timing changed across cohorts.
  2. The company share of AI researchers’ top papers rose from 2% to 32%Includes University of Texas at Dallas. We estimate where leading AI researchers worked when their most-cited papers appeared. The company share rose from 2% in 1975–1979 to 32% in 2020–2024.
  3. More people shaping AI studied at Massachusetts Institute of Technology than at any other institutionIncludes King's College London. Our estimates of where the people shaping AI studied and where their careers led, from education records in cited biographies.
  4. Google had the most people shaping AI every year from 2014 to 2025Our estimates of which organizations employed the most people shaping AI from 1961 to 2025, with a year-by-year chart.

Colleagues

People with dated positions at the same organization in the same years.

Sources and credits

Photo: We have no published photo of David Hanson yet. Send us a free-licensed photo.

  1. David Hanson Talks Importance of Integrating Technology and the Arts jindal.utdallas.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  2. Sophia the robot: Meet the man behind the world's most human-like machine gq-magazine.co.uk. Checked 19 October 2026.
  3. Interviewing The Inventor Of Sophia, World's First Humanoid Robot with David Hanson manavgolecha.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  4. Future of ‘Human-like’ Robots To Be Topic of Presentation at UTD news.utdallas.edu. Checked 19 October 2026.
  5. Sophia, Hanson Robotics' Most Advanced and Celebrated Robot, Delivered Keynote Address at Rhode Island School of Design's 2018 Commencement prnewswire.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  6. Hanson Robotics’ Little Sophia Teaches STEM, Robotics, AI to Children interestingengineering.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  7. A Neuro-Symbolic Humanlike Arm Controller for Sophia the Robot arxiv.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  8. Open Arms: Open-Source Arms, Hands & Control arxiv.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  9. 'My Robot Sophia' documentary explores what it means to be human | Here & Now wbur.org. Checked 19 October 2026.
  10. David Hanson | FutureTech 2026: Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing & Intelligent Computing Systems srcmeetings.com. Checked 19 October 2026.
  11. David Hanson itu.int. Checked 19 October 2026.