Petra Schwer is Professor of Mathematics at the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg, Germany. Prior to her current position she taught at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. Petra Schwer studies the interplay between geometric objects and their symmetries. More specifically she works on topics in geometric group theory, metric geometry and combinatorial group theory and likes to apply these methods to adjacent areas. Her current focus is on non-positively curved groups and spaces, polyhedral complexes, as well as Coxeter groups, (Bruhat-Tits) buildings, and their applications.