Alain Kaufmann holds degrees in biology and sociology from the University of Lausanne. He was successively a researcher at the Institute of Anatomy and the Institute of Sociology of Mass Communications of the University of Lausanne, and at the Center for the Sociology of Innovation at the École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris.
In 2002 he founded the Interface Sciences-Société of UNIL, of which he was director until 2018. Since January 2019 he directs Le ColLaboratoire, UNIL’s action-research, collaborative and participative unit.
His fields of research and teaching are the sociology of science and technology, scientific communication and mediation, technological risks, research ethics, public participation in scientific and technical choices, action research, and the social and anthropological aspects of biomedical research.