Jean-Pierre Hansen is a leading authority on statistical mechanics of simple, ionic and complex fluids, and ultradense plasmas. His simulations and density functional investigations of crystallisation led to a widely used freezing criterion and a quantitative understanding of quantum crystals. His simulations of quenched liquids provide decisive tests of the mode-coupling theory for the kinetic glass transition.

He pioneered the application of methods from the theory of simple liquids to complex fluids and interfaces — including electric double layers, colloids, clay dispersions, concentrated polymer solutions and ion channels — as well as to the structure and dynamics of ultradense plasmas, predicting unexpected correlation effects of entropic or Coulombic origin.

Jean-Pierre has received a number of awards for his research, including the Grand Prix de l’Etat of the Académie des sciences, France, in 1990, the Liquid Matter Prize of the European Physical Society in 2005, and the Rumford Medal of the Royal Society in 2006.