Kai Savolainen was born in Copenhagen in 1950. He graduated from the Medical School of the University of Helsinki in 1976, and completed his Dr.Sci. degree in medicine in 1981, also in the University of Helsinki. He also obtained a PhD in Toxicology from the University of Kansas while working there as a Fogarty postdoctoral fellow during 1985-87. He was a Diplomate of American Board of Toxicology 1986-1995, and he has been after a 1995 EUROTOX Registered toxicologist.

He served in several positions at the National Public Health Institute of Finland during 1982-1995, and was Head of the Department of Toxicology during 1992-95. He was Professor of Chemical Environmental Hygiene at the University of Kuopio in 1995, and then Professor and Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology of the University of Kuopio 1996-98 when he joined the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health and served as the Director of the Department of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology during 1998-2005. He was member of the Executive Group of the Institute during 2003-2005, and Chair of the Institute Research Committee during 1999-2004. Currently he is responsible for the 'New Technologies and Risk' Research at the Institute, and is the leader of the Research Programme on Safe Nanotechnologies and Safety of Engineered Nanoparticles.

He has published over 400 scientific paper, among them more than 170 peer reviewed papers. He has mentored 14 PhD students and 10 MS students, and acted several times as a PhD thesis opponent or examiner.

Kai Savolainen has served in numerous national and international scientific expert groups within European Union and beyond, and he has been invited to give more thatn 50 invited talks in international congresess. Kai Savolainen leads several large international, mainly European Union, funded research consortia with a focus on the safety of engineered nanoparticles.

Savolainen has been active in national and international scientific organizations. He was the president of the Finnish Society of Toxicology 1992-93, President of the International Neurotoxicology Association 1999-2000, Member of the Governing Board of International Council for Laboratory Animal Science. He has served as the member of the Executive Committee of the International Union of Toxicology (IUTOX) 1989-98, of those 1992-98 as the Secretary. He is currently the President of IUTOX. He was also the President of the 10th International Congress of Toxicology organized in Tampere, in Finland in 2004.