Karen Birkelund received her M.Sc. degree from Roskilde University Center, Denmark in 1993 and her Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering in 1997 from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). She has worked as research engineer in various companies within micro and nanofabricated devices. From 2006 she worked for 5 years as assistant professor at DTU Nanotech working mainly on MEMS devices and encapsulation for harsh environments. Later she joined DTU Nanolab as process generalist. Since 2021 she has been Head of Lithography and Wet Chemistry at DTU Nanolab.