Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede

Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede (maiden name Wittung) is a Swedish biophysical chemist, born in 1968, who is a professor of chemical biology at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg. In 2019 she was named by International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry as a Distinguished Woman in Chemistry.

Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede
Born	(1968-08-31) August 31, 1968 (age 57) Umeå, Sweden
Nationality	Swedish
Citizenship	Swedish and American
Alma mater	Chalmers University of Technology
Scientific career
Fields	Biochemistry, Biophysics, Chemistry
Thesis	Intelligent nucleic acid interactions with peptide nucleic acids and in recombination proteins (1996)
Doctoral advisor	Bengt Nordén

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,^[1] with a thesis entitled Intelligent nucleic acid interactions with peptide nucleic acids and in recombination proteins.^[2]

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^[3] (1999-2003) and Rice University in Houston, Texas^[4] (2004-2008).^[5]

In 2008, she returned to Sweden to a professor position at Umeå University. Since September 2015, she has been a professor at Chalmers University of Technology and was the head of the Chemical Biology division. 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.^[6]

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).^[7]

In 2017 she was elected a member of the council of Biophysical Society (BPS).^[8] It was the second time ever for a Swedish scientist; the first one was Arne Engström 1960–1963.^[9]

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.^[10]

In 2019 she started Genie at Chalmers, a 300 MSEK gender equality initiative funded by the Chalmers Foundation and led it for four years.^[11]

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.^[12]
• Göran Gustafsson Prize in Chemistry in 2009, awarded by the Göran Gustafsson Foundation and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.^[13]
• Wallmark Prize in 2009, awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.^[14]
• STIAS fellow in 2013, awarded by the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies, South Africa.^[15]
• Svante Arrhenius plaque in 2016, awarded by the Swedish Chemical Society in collaboration with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.^[16]
• Elected member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, 2016.^[17]
• Elected member of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg, 2016.^[18][19]
• 2016 International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry Distinguished Woman in Chemistry^[20]
• Elected as a member, Academia Europaea, 2017 ^[21]
• Gustav Dalén Medal, 2019^[22]
• Elected member Royal Swedish Academy Engineering Sciences, 2020^[23]
• Selected as Biophysical Society Fellow, 2022^[24]
• Selected as Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (HonFRSC), 2024^[25]

Bibliography

Pernilla has published over 260 scientific peer-reviewed articles since her first in 1994 (h index Google scholar 58, April 2024) and over 50 popular articles. Full list on her Orcid^[26] or Scopus^[27]

Personal life

Wittung-Stafshede is married to Patric Stafshede and they have two daughters, Selma and Hilda Stafshede.