Hans Thybo is a Professor of Geophysics at Istanbul Technical University, Turkey, a 1000 Talents Professor at China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, and a Distinguished Professor at SinoProbe Laboratory at China Academy of Geological Sciences. He holds degrees in Physics, Mathematics, and Geophysics. He has been visiting professor at Stanford University. He held positions at the University of Copenhagen for 30 years, where he built geophysics as a discipline at the Geological Institute and served as head of department for five years.

His research interests are mainly in processes related to plate tectonics and geodynamics as well as seismology with recent projects on the interplay between topography and deep processes in the Earth. He was a member of the team that first identified structure from more than 1.5 billion year old plate tectonics; he discovered the Mid Lithospheric Discontinuity of fundamental importance the tectonic evolution; and he has discovered a fundamental role of magmatic activity for the development of the economically important sedimentary basins. He has been initiator of more than 40 large scale international collaborative geoscientific projects. He was the founder of the Danish large-scale research infrastructure DanSeis.

Hans Thybo is elected member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences, where he served as vice-president for 6 years; Academia Europaea; Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters; and Danish Academy of Natural Sciences, where he is a board member. He is a fellow of Geological Society of America and Royal Astronomical Society, London. He was national representative to ICSU and chaired the Danish ICSU committee 2006-2017. He has been external member of faculty boards and research councils in several countries. He is Honorary Editor of the journal Tectonophysics and present co-Editor-in-Chief of EPSL. He has received the 1000 Talents Award from China. He has been member of the ISC (International Science Council) Committee for Freedom and Responsibility in Science. Thybo was a cofounder of European Geosciences Union, where he has served as President, General Secretary and Division President. He is currently President of the International Lithosphere Program (ILP).