Sylvia Speller was born on June 17, 1967, in Haren, Germany. She is a German physicist who obtained her Dr. rer. nat. from the University of Osnabruck (1995) and has been a professor in the faculty of mathematics and natural sciences at the University of Rostock since 2012. She teaches and researches experimental physics, specifically, surface and interface physics, nanophysics, and scanning probe methods. Speller is currently a member of the German Physical Society.