About Me
Nice to meet you! My name is Lea Marcotulli
and 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 am a Helmholtz Investigator Group Leader in the
gamma-ray group at DESY
(Zeuthen, Germany). Since 2025, I also hold an Adjunct Faculty
position in the
Physics Department at Clemson University (Clemson, SC, USA).
If you are interested in coming to work with me, check out my
job openings
or send me an email!
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. Between 2024 and 2025, I remained
at Yale University as a
Postdoctoral Fellow
and held a visiting postdoc position in the
High Energy Group at Caltech.
What is my research about? I use NASA and ESA 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 black holes that power relativistic jets. 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!