Karen Kastenhofer is trained in biology, human ecology and social studies of science. She worked at the Institut für interdisziplinäre Forschung und Fortbildung in Vienna from 1999 to 2003 and at Wissenschaftszentrum Umwelt (University of Augsburg, Germany) from 2005 to 2007. Since 2007, she has been working at the Institute for Technology Assessment at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Her major areas of interest are epistemic cultures within the life sciences and technologies as well as how societies are dealing with risk, knowledge and non-knowledge.