For many years, Karsten Åström has been a Guest Professor at Linköping University, where he has established Welfare Law as a subject at the Faculty of Philosophy. The Faculty Board motivates awarding Åström with the honorary degree by stating that
"In his work to establish Welfare Law at LiU, Åström showed outstanding loyalty, persistence, engagement, and belief in his subject, which has been crucial to the being of Welfare Law today."
Karsten Åström received his doctoral degree at Lund University in 1988. He has since the early 1980s been engaged in interdisciplinary research on legislative processes, implementation and the effects of laws in particular the field of welfare law. In recent years, he has also done research on legal professions, experts in court and "access to justice".