She studied Industrial Design at Middle East Technical University (METU), in Ankara, (MSc, 2004). In 2009, she completed her PhD research at Delft University of Technology. In her PhD, she developed a ‘Meaning Driven Materials Selection Tool’ to support designers in their materials selection activities. She has presented her research at a number of international conferences and has run various workshops on the ‘meanings of materials.’ She was a member of the organizing committee of the 4th International Design and Emotion Conference (Ankara, 2004), Meeting Materials (Gent, 2006) and the International Conference on Tools and Methods for Competitive Engineering (TMCE) (Izmir, 2007). Dr. Karana’s current research areas include teaching materials in design, developing a materials experience library, and designing and manufacturing with bio-based materials.