Mary Pikul Anderson is a hydrologist, geologist, and professor emerita of hydrogeology. She is a fellow of the Geological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union,^[1] and the National Academy of Engineering.^[2]

Anderson was born September 30, 1948, in Buffalo, New York.^[3] She received a B.A. degree at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1970.^[1] She earned an M.S. in 1971^[1][4] and a PhD^[5] in 1973 from Stanford University. After a brief time at Southampton College of Long Island University, she joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1975 where she was promoted to professor in 1985.^[1]

Anderson was elected as a member into the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 for leadership in the development of groundwater-flow models.^[2] Anderson also served as president of the Hydrology Section of the American Geophysical Union from 1996 until 1998, and was the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Groundwater from 2002 until 2005.^[1]

Anderson's research involves groundwater–lake interaction and application of computer models.

She is co-author of two textbooks including Introduction to Groundwater Modeling^[6] and Applied Groundwater Modeling, now in a 2nd edition (2015).^[7] She has been cited as turning groundwater modeling into a "fundamental tool of practicing hydrologists."^[8]

• M. King Hubbert Award of the Association of Groundwater Scientists and Engineers and the National Ground Water Association (1992)^[9]
• O.E. Meinzer Award, Geological Society of America (1998)^[10]
• Fellow, Geological Society of America ^[when?][11]
• Fellow, American Geophysical Union (1999)^[12]
• C.V. Theis Award, American Institute of Hydrology (2000)^[13]
• Elected member, National Academy of Engineering (2006)^[2]
• Walter Langbein lecture, American Geophysical Union (2007)^[14]