Robert Hanner is a Professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Guelph. He is cross-appointed to the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario and is also a Fellow of the Arrell Food Institute. His molecular biodiversity research program spans both single and multicellular organisms found in aquatic, terrestrial and industrial environments. His lab has made substantial contributions to the construction of reference sequence libraries used for DNA-based identification of species. This work is foundational to support a variety of applied biomonitoring projects that span diverse aspects of animal, plant, environmental and even human health. Notably, it has also been used to detect economically motivated adulteration of foods, particularly seafood. He collaborates closely with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, nongovernmental organizations such as Oceana, and a variety of industrial partners.