"I’ve really just been playing with chemicals with a certain strategy, to try and make things that might be useful."
During that time he has come up with many "useful" things — some of which are changing the world.
The 70-year-old University of Otago Mellor Chair and chemistry lecturer and researcher is retiring at the end of this week after "44 and three-quarter" years in the department.
"Not that I’m counting down the days or anything," he joked.
Prof Hanton was raised in Mataura, went to Gore High School, and then studied chemistry at the University of Otago before going on to do his chemistry PhD at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.
"I was only over there for about nine months, and the University of Otago very kindly offered me a job in the chemistry department when I was finished at Cambridge.
"It was a different time. This was the early ’80s, and I guess they saw some promise in me."
He got his PhD, went back to Otago to teach and research chemistry, and the rest was history, he said.
Looking back on his career, there were several things he was very proud of.
He is one of the inventors of a wound healing medical hydrogel, called Chitogel, which is now used specifically on patients following nasal surgery.
Development of the gel began in 2005, and he has been actively involved in its commercialisation. He is an ex-offico member and adviser to the board of directors of Chitogel Ltd.
Manufacture of the gel began in Wellington in 2015.
"So far, it’s been used to treat 17,500 patients since 2019."
Prof Hanton said he also worked a lot on metal-organic frameworks, which were "three-dimensional arrays" that could be used to capture and store gases — particularly hydrogen.
"The irony is that hydrogen as a fuel costs almost as much to compress into a cylinder, as the energy you get out of it.
"If you pack it full of these metal-organic frameworks, you can get more hydrogen into the cylinder."
It had huge potential for fuelling hydrogen-powered vehicles.
"But that’s a lot more academic, and a long way away from commercialisation."
His work was "the best possible job" he could imagine.
"So when I go to work each day, it’s not like going to work. It’s certainly my happy place.
"But you’ve got to draw a line under things at some stage, because the runway is getting shorter by the moment."
He was looking forward to spending more time with family, reading "an enormous stack of books", doing all sorts of jobs around the house — and of course, there was wine to drink.
"Retirement’s going to mean that I can procrastinate without guilt."
However, he would miss his job — particularly the students.
"Teaching the students has been wonderful.
"I’m a 70-year-old man — what student is ever going to want to talk to a 70-year-old man?
"The thing is, when I’m teaching, I am ‘thee man’, as it were, so I’m going to miss that enormous enthusiasm and vibrancy which comes from teaching young people."
