Name: Dr. Andrea Haker

Position at UvA: Programme Director MSc Information Studies

As the programme director of the Master Information Studies, I am responsible for all matters concerning the vision, planning and administration. Within the master we offer three different tracks: Business Information Systems (BIS), Human-Centered Multimedia (HCM), and Game Studies (GS). Together with the track coordinators, teachers and the staff, we aim to offer students an excellent program to learn about Information Studies and to prepare then for their professional career, either in industry or academia.

Offering interdisciplinary education that prepares students for the demands of modern society is one of my ambitions. My professional background is biology; I studied biology in Germany at the University of Rostock and finished my PhD in molecular microbiology at the University of Amsterdam. During my PhD I gained already some experience in interdisciplinary research. I studied the biological function of a photoactive protein but also the characteristics of this protein itself by using techniques from chemistry, physics, and computer science. I learned that interdisciplinary research puts high demands on the researcher, not only to get acquainted with knowledge and concepts from other disciplines but also to combine them for a better understanding of the problem. My aim now is to help students to learn the skills to better flourish in a more demanding world.