Following his PhD, Hardy did postdoctoral research at the MRC Neuropathogenesis Unit in Newcastle upon Tyne UK and the Swedish Brain Bank in Umeå, where he began to work on Alzheimer's disease. After moving to Imperial College London in 1985, He moved to the USA in 1989 and to the Pfeiffer Endowed Chair of Alzheimer's Research at the University of South Florida, Tampa then in 1996 to Mayo Clinic Florida. In 2000 he moved to NIA Bethesda, as Laboratory Chief and returned to the UK to his current position in 2007. He was awarded the Breakthrough Prize in 2015 and in 2018 jointly the Brain Prize.