Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede (maiden name Wittung) is a Swedish biophysical chemist, born in 1968, who is a professor of Chemistry at Rice University in Houston, Texas, USA. In 2019 she was named by International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry as a Distinguished Woman in Chemistry.
She received her Master of Science Degree in Engineering from Chalmers University of Technology and a doctorate at the same institution in 1996 in biophysical chemistry under Bengt Nordén, with a thesis entitled Intelligent nucleic acid interactions with peptide nucleic acids and in recombination proteins.
After her Ph.D., she worked for twelve years in the United States at the California Institute of Technology, Beckman Institute in Pasadena, California (1997âÂÂ98), Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana(1999-2003) and Rice University in Houston, Texas (2004-2008). In 2008, she returned to Sweden to a professor position at UmeÃÂ¥ University. From 2015 to 2025 she was a professor at Chalmers University of Technology and was the head of the Chemical Biology division for the first 3 years.
In July, 2025, she moved to Rice University in Houston, Texas, to become the Charles W. Duncan, Jr.-Welch Professor of Chemistry. Concurrently she received an Established Investigator Award as a CPRIT Scholar.
She leads a research group that focuses on the biophysical properties of proteins; both metal-transporting proteins and proteins that fold incorrectly and clump together. The research is basic science, but has links to diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and cancer.
In 2010, Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede was one of ten researchers in Sweden, appointed as a Wallenberg Scholar, receiving a grant awarded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation that she has renewed several times (most recently in 2024). In 2017 she was elected a member of the council of Biophysical Society (BPS). It was the second time ever for a Swedish scientist; the first one was Arne Engström 1960âÂÂ1963.
In 2020, she became a member of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Committee, and since 2021 she is a council member for The Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings.https://www.lindau-nobel.org/member/pernilla-wittung-stafshede/ In 2019 she started Genie at Chalmers, a 300 MSEK gender equality initiative funded by the Chalmers Foundation and led it for four years.
Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede has received a number of awards and prizes. These include:
Pernilla has published several hundred scientific peer-reviewed articles since her first in 1994 and numerous popular articles. Full list on her ORCID or Scopus sites.
Wittung-Stafshede has two daughters, Selma and Hilda Stafshede. Pernilla has two sisters, Paulina and Petronella.