Pernilla Wittung-Stafshede is a Professor at the Life Sciences Department at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. Her research centers around biophysical studies of protein folding, misfolding and interactions. She has made pioneering discoveries around the role of metals in protein folding, macromolecular crowding effects on folding reactions, as well as on mechanisms of copper-transport proteins. After a PhD in physical chemistry in 1996, she did a postdoc at California Institute of Technology. In 1999, her independent career started at Tulane University, New Orleans. She received tenure and was promoted to associate professor in 2002. In 2004 she moved to Rice University, Houston. Wittung-Stafshede returned to Sweden in 2008 to a professor position at Umeå University. She transferred to Chalmers in 2015 to the then newly-founded Life Sciences department.

Wittung-Stafshede’s current research focus is directed towards roles of copper transport proteins in cancer processes and cross-reactivity between amyloidogenic proteins, as well as between such proteins and metals, in neurodegenerative diseases. She has received numerous awards for her pioneering work. She is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of the Sciences and the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences. In 2020 she joined the Nobel Prize in Chemistry committee. Wittung-Stafshede has published over 265 peer-reviewed scientific articles and over 50 popular texts.

In 2019, Wittung-Stafshede obtained funding for a large gender equality program named Genie (Gender Initiative for Excellence) at her university; she acted Genie leader during the first four years. Over the years, she has become a spokesperson for gender equality, in Sweden and internationally.