Professor Hannan is an internationally recognised laboratory scientist whose work on ribosome biogenesis has led to new treatment paradigms in cancer centred on drugs that activate nucleolar stress. He brought together multi-disciplinary teams of laboratory and clinician researchers and forged industry collaborations to devise first in class RNA polymerase I inhibitors that are now in clinical trials for a range of haematologic cancers. His far-reaching contributions were recognised in his recent promotion to NHMRC PRF and appointment as inaugural Centenary Chair in Cancer Research and Head of the ACRF Department of Cancer Biology and Therapeutics at the JCSMR, ANU.