Petra Schwille (born 25 January 1968 in Sindelfingen[1]) is a German professor and a researcher in the area of biophysics.

Since 2011, she has been a director of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Biophysics at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany.

[2][3] She is known for her ground-laying work in the field of fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy,[4][5] and numerous contributions on model membranes.

[6] Her current research focuses around bottom-up approaches to building an artificial cell within a broader area of synthetic biology.

[8] In 2012, Schwille became the director of the research department "Cellular and Molecular Biophysics" at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany,[6] as well as an Honorary Professor in physics at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich.