Jan-Henrik Andersen was born and grew up in Trondheim, Norway and is now a member of the regular faculty at the School of Art&Design, University of Michigan.

With a background in architecture he earned his diploma (MFA equivalent) from the Institute of Industrial Design at the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) in Oslo, Norway (1984), where he also served as a tenured faculty member until 1996, now named Institute of Industrial Design at The Oslo School of Architecture. From 1987-89 Andersen served as Project Manager for a comprehensive public design program for the City of Oslo.

After a 3 year visiting professorship at Purdue University in Indiana from 1996 to 99, he joined the School of Art & Design at The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

His teaching ranges from Design History and Methodology to studio/practice based courses and classes with emphasis on 3D modeling and rapid prototyping.

He maintains a professional practice with projects ranging from visual and cross-disciplinary university related research, to development of industrial design products.

Andersen has managed or participated in more than 50 industrial design projects ranging from development of sustainable marine farming to electro mechanical durables such as computer workstations, as well as consumer products such as tools.

His research interests include design methodologies with emphasis on form semantics and the implementation of technology-based design tools. The notion of an inquisitive and holistic approach to design and environmental sustainability is prominent in Andersen’s work, with a broad approach to obtain design integration of related fields in engineering, the sciences and humanities.

Over the past years he has worked with physicists at the University of Michigan to develop a comprehensive visual nomenclature for subatomic particle energies and matter. The work has resulted in a series of large scale computer generated images inked on canvas and paper. In the continuation of the work, a series of human scale objects such as furniture is eminent and will together with the images, be presented in the summer of 2005 at Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois.

Andersen has also worked in yacht design with award winning designs of sailing boats and small craft such as tenders. His yacht designs and prototypes have been published in international publications.

Andersen has received awards and grants from national and institutional funding sources, he has lectured worldwide and his practice has spanned Europe, the Americas, and the Far East. His work has been published in several languages and he has exhibited his work both in Europe and the US.

May 2005