Prof Andersen is Professor (Research Excellence and Impact) in Charles Darwin University’s Office of Research and Innovation, and Professor of Terrestrial Invertebrates in CDU’s Research Institute for the Environment and Livelihoods. He was previously a Chief Research Scientist with CSIRO Land & Water, and Officer-in-Charge of CSIRO’s Tropical Ecosystems Research Centre in Darwin from 1995 to 2016, leading a team of up to 30 ecologists, socio-ecologists, economists, students and support staff with a mission to deliver environmental, social and economic benefits to people who influence, use and manage Australia’s tropical savannas. Prof Andersen’s primary research interests are in the global ecology of ant communities, where he integrates community ecology, historical and contemporary biogeography, and systematics to gain a predictive understanding of ant diversity, behavioural dominance and functional composition in relation to environmental stress and disturbance throughout the world. He applies this understanding to the use of ants as bioindicators of ecological change. He also has broad research interests in the ecology of tropical savannas, and the ecology and management of fire.