Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede

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.

Education 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.

Employment After her Ph.D., she worked for twelve years in the United States at the California Institute of Technology, Beckman Institute in Pasadena, California (1997–98), 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 Umeå 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 1960–1963.

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. In 2019 she started Genie at Chalmers, a 300 MSEK gender equality initiative funded by the Chalmers Foundation and led it for four years.

Awards and honors Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede has received a number of awards and prizes. These include:

National Fresenius Award in 2003, awarded by the American Chemical Society Phi Lambda Upsilon to young eminent chemistry researchers. Göran Gustafsson Prize in Chemistry in 2009, awarded by the Göran Gustafsson Foundation and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Wallmark Prize in 2009, awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. STIAS fellow in 2013, awarded by the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, South Africa. Svante Arrhenius plaque in 2016, awarded by the Swedish Chemical Society in collaboration with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 2016. Elected member of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg, 2016. 2019 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Distinguished Woman in Chemistry Elected as a member, Academia Europaea, 2017 Gustav Dalén Medal, 2019 Elected member Royal Swedish Academy Engineering Sciences, 2020 Selected as Biophysical Society Fellow, 2022 Selected as Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (HonFRSC), 2024 Elected as Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences, 2024 Elected as Foreign Member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, 2024