Lea Marcotulli

Nice to meet you! My name is Lea Marcotulli and I am currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University. I was born in Perpignan, France, and grew up in Fermo, Italy. I pursued my undergraduate degree in Astronomy at Bologna University. In 2015 I joined the graduate program at Clemson University where I completed my `Masters en route' in 2017 and I finished my PhD in Physics in May 2021, under Dr. Marco Ajello’s supervision. From September 2021 until August 2024, I held the NASA Einstein Postdoctoral Fellowship which I brought to Yale University. I am a high-energy astrophysicist and my main research focus is chasing supermassive black holes at the dawn of the Universe that power relativistic jets.

I use both NASA satellites in space that explore the universe at the highest X- and gamma-ray energies, as well ground-based infrared and optical facilities, to find and study the most powerful, most distant of these sources. Among the questions I am trying to answer: how did these black grow so big so early on? How did they evolve, from then to us? What is the process of triggering these extreme relativistic jets from their cores?

When I am not staring into my laptop screen, or more poetically looking at the stars, you can find me in nature, hiking, chopping wood, or camping. I love reading and knitting. But most importantly, I have a passion for sharing my love for astrophysics with the world!