Clifford Lynch is an American computer scientist who is the director of the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI), where he has been since 1997.

[1] Prior to joining CNI, Lynch spent eighteen years at the University of California Office of the President, the last ten as Director of Library Automation.

He is both a past president and recipient of the 2008 Award of Merit of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T),[3] and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Information Standards Organization.

Lynch lectures extensively on issues pertaining to digital libraries, information policy, and emerging interoperability standards.

In 2011 he was appointed co-chair of the National Academies Board on Research Data and Information (BRDI);[4] His work has been recognized by the American Library Association Joseph W. Lippincott Award, the EDUCAUSE Leadership Award in Public Policy and Practice,[5] and the American Society for Engineering Education's Homer Bernhardt Award.