Prof. L. Hardman (1960) has been named professor by special appointment of Multimedia Interaction in the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam. The chair has been designated on behalf of Stichting Bèta Plus.

Lynda Hardman has dedicated her career to improving the human interface in developing technology. Her research focused particularly on navigation interfaces for hypertext (text with directly activatable hyperlinks, such as Wikipedia) during the initial rise the worldwide web developed in the early 90s.

Consequently, Hardman became interested in the extra dimensions of time-based, interactive media and how these can be supported using generic web technologies. Her PhD thesis (UvA) focused on modelling and authoring hypermedia documents.

Since the development of the semantic web, Hardman has dedicated herself to improving human access to the ever-expanding ‘linked data cloud'. Her current research efforts are focused on improving design methods for human-based interfaces in relation to the latest technology. Hardman is also working to assess the extent to which human tasks can influence the course of technological developments.

As of 1992, Hardman has served in various capacities at the Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI) of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). In 2001, she was appointed professor in Multimedia and Internet Technology at Eindhoven University of Technology. Hardman's previous employment includes periods as a researcher at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh.