 Kauffman has worked at many places as a visiting professor and researcher, including the University of Zaragoza in Spain, the University of Iowa in Iowa City, the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in Bures Sur Yevette, France, the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris, France, the University of Bologna, Italy, the Federal University of Pernambuco in Recife, Brazil, and the Newton Institute in Cambridge England.He is the founding editor and one of the managing editors of the "Journal of Knot Theory and Its Ramifications", and editor of the "World Scientific Book Series On Knots and Everything".He writes a column entitled Virtual Logic for the journal "Cybernetics and Human Knowing"

From 2005 to 2008 he was president of the American Society for Cybernetics.