Mikkel F. Andersen is a physicist, Associate Professor at the University of Otago, and an investigator at the Dodd-Walls Centre in Dunedin, New Zealand.

He then studied laser cooling at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, finishing his PhD in the physics of complex systems in 2004.

[1] From 2004 to 2006 he did a post-doc at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, studying laser cooling with Nobel Laureate William D. Phillips, inventor of the Zeeman slower.

[3][7] This research has implications for quantum computer development,[1] constructing molecules at the atomic scale, and the theoretical underpinnings of molecular assembly.

[3] Another project is the development of an atomic gravimeter, smaller and cheaper than existing models, for measuring local fluctuations in the Earth's gravitational field.