Helge Torgersen has a Ph.D. in biology and held research and lecturing positions in molecular biology at the University of Vienna. In 1990 he joined the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, where he worked on principles for risk assessment and safety regulation of GMO releases and biotechnology policy. His research topics also included public attitudes to novel technologies and science studies in biotechnology. Current interests are societal aspects of nanotechnology, genomics and synthetic biology as well as participatory technology assessment.