Kärnefelt was born in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1944. His initial goal in his higher-level studies at University of Cologne in 1966–1967 was to become a dentist. He changed courses in 1968, turning instead to biology at the University of Gothenburg in 1968. Gunnar Degelius, his first teacher during undergraduate studies in botany in 1968, inspired him and others. After Degelius' retirement in 1969, Ingvar continued his studies at Lund University, where Hans Runemark held a position in systematic botany. In 1971 he met Ove Almborn, who became his supervisor. In 1979, he defended his thesis titled "The brown fruticose species of Cetraria". The thesis was later awarded a prize for the best doctoral dissertation in botany at Lund University during a 5-year period by the Royal Physiographic Society in Lund.[2]
Kärnefelt became associate professor at the Department of Systematic Botany at the University of Lund, where he mentored several PhD students.[2]
Kärnefelt's research interests include the Parmeliaceae and the Teloschistaceae, both families in which he described several taxa new to science. In 1987 he started a project regarding the status of threatened lichens in southern Sweden. This project, which was extended until 1995, provided funding for his PhD students and resulted in the publication of a highly cited book in 1997.[2] Kärnefelt became director of the Botaniska trädgården in 1994, and Professor in 2000. He was able to secure funding from the Swedish Species Information Centre [sv] to support digitization and curation of collections in Swedish biological museums.[2]
^Hertel, Hannes; Gärtner, Georg; Lőkös, László (2017). "Forscher an Österreichs Flechtenflora" [Investigators of Austria's lichen flora] (PDF). Stapfia (in German). 104 (2): 1–211 (see p. 72).
^Kondratyuk, S.Y.; Lőkös, L.; Upreti, D. K.; Nayaka, S.; Mishra, G.K.; Ravera, S.; Jeong, M.-H.; Jang, S.-H.; Park, J.S.; Hur, J.-S. (2017). "New monophyletic branches of the Teloschistaceae (lichen-forming Ascomycota) proved by three gene phylogeny". Acta Botanica Hungarica. 59 (1–2): 71–136. doi:10.1556/034.59.2017.1-2.6. hdl:10447/414429.
