The Team behind the eROSITA cosmology results

My name is Esra Bulbul. I am a Turkish-American astrophysicist. I was awarded a Ph.D. degree in astrophysics at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. After working as a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, and MIT, I moved to the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics as a staff scientist in 2019. My love for physics and dark, starry skies led me to a career in astrophysics.

My role in the eROSITA collaboration is as the chair of the clusters and cosmology working group. I am the lead scientist for cluster science and cosmology for eROSITA and hold the position of group leader in the same field at MPE. My expertise is centered around the application of multi-wavelength surveys of galaxy clusters in cosmological research, as well as the studies of large-scale structure and astrophysics. In 2020, I received an ERC Consolidator grant, a pivotal factor in the realization of the eROSITA catalog and cosmology papers. This grant has also allowed me the opportunity to assemble a talented and amazing team of students and postdocs, with whom I enjoy collaborating at work but also enjoy spending time outside of work.

If I were to begin my academic journey, I would follow the same path without any changes. Throughout my academic tenure, I learned that maintaining a positive mindset and attitude when confronted with challenges is the key to success. Eventually, all the hard work pays off for the ones who are patient. Additionally, I consider myself fortunate to have encountered two exceptional mentors who played pivotal roles in guiding me throughout my career. For junior scientists, my advice is to actively seek out and surround themselves with supportive colleagues as they navigate their academic journey.

I am Sebastian Grandis, born in Rome, and of mixed European heritage. During my studies of Physics at ETH Zurich my interest was sparked by the fundamental questions: What is the structure of the Universe? What is it made of and what fundamental forces shape it? I pursued the answer to these questions during my PhD at LMU Munich, and later as a researcher at LMU Munich and University Innsbruck.

I am working on using the multi-wavelength properties of clusters of galaxies to better understand the composition and evolution of the Universe. I developed this method since I joined the eROSITA team at the beginning of my PhD studies. For eRASS1, I worked intensively on the modeling of the population properties of the cluster sample used to derive the cosmological results, including the detection of the distortion of background galaxy images via the gravitational potentials of eROSITA clusters (see attached image) using the Dark Energy Survey dataset.

The future of the field looks very exciting. The work of eRASS1 has set a new benchmark for the study of the composition and structure of the Universe, while using only a small fraction of the data that will become available over the next decade. While we explore the Universe in more depth, we might well discover completely new phenomena that go beyond your current understanding. Working on the edge of the unknown is a great thrill – and privilege I am very grateful for. 

My main hobbies are outdoor activities: hiking in the Alps around Innsbruck, and sailing in the Mediterranean in summer. The contact with Nature has always helped me with inspiration in my scientific work. For instance, while sailing past the cliffs of the Monte Orlando promontory in central Italy, I came up with a joint model for the optical and X-ray properties of cluster samples. This method is implemented in the main eRASS1 cosmological analysis.
 

I am Vittorio Ghirardini, astrophysicist. I come from the Northern region of Italy close to Trento, just
in the middle of the Alps. I have always been obsessed with data, collecting it, formatting it, and
visualizing it. When I was little, I sorted the world countries listed at the end of the geographic atlas,
not just by name but also by population, size, population density, etc. I also had my own little
weather data collection system where I measured precipitation, rigorously converting from snow to
water, if necessary, by letting it melt.

When I was a little kid, my family gifted me a small telescope, and I used it for countless hours to
observe the night sky. One thing led to another, and I got my Ph.D. in Bologna in 2019. During this
period, I found new love in galaxy clusters, which has since been my main research interest. In
particular, I find it fascinating how these systems can be seen as their own little Universe and how
they host some of the most energetic events in our Universe. Since the end of my PhD I have been
working as a postdoc with Esra Bulbul, first year at CfA (MA, USA), then since the end of 2019
here at MPE. Here, I immediately started working with this newly amazing X-ray telescope:
eROSITA. First I worked on the calibration data, then moved and dedicated the last few years to
developing the cosmology pipeline used to produce our precision cosmology results.

It is fascinating how galaxy clusters can be used to probe and study the formation and evolution of
the Universe, aka cosmology. As the largest bound halos in the Cosmos, they retain information on
how the primordial density fluctuations evolved into these enourmous structures, and just counting
them allows us to probe quite well our currently accepted cosmological model. My scientific interest
in galaxy clusters extends beyond this, as galaxy cluster observations allow us to study some of
the most energetic phenomena of the Universe, like AGN feedback or cluster mergers.

Beyond science, I have several hobbies, like hiking in the mountains, bike riding, gardening, bread
(and pizza) making with my own sourdough, and cooking in general. As a scientist, I have to daily
code to analyze data, visualize data, create models for the data, and fit the data. As such my main
suggestion would be to learn to code as cleanly as possible so as to minimize the time that is
subsequently spent at debugging.

I’m Christian Garrel, a French postdoctoral fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. I received my Ph.D. in Astrophysics and Cosmology from the CEA Paris-Saclay (LCEG laboratoratory) where the core of my thesis was to perform the cosmological analysis of an X-ray selected sample of galaxy cluster and to develop a new detection pipeline for the XXL survey, an X-ray survey using XMMNewton observations.

My main focus is to study galaxy clusters and cosmological inference. My primary research interest is about observational cosmology using galaxy clusters as probes.

One interesting fact about myself: I didn't go to high school because I wasn't very interested in school. Until by chance I discovered my interest in maths and physics and resumed my studies.
If I were able to restart my academic life, I won't change a thing, and the only advice I can give you is not to hesitate to change direction, because nothing is permanent. I think as long as we have X-ray observations of galaxy clusters, I'll try to extract their cosmological information.

I spend my free time practicing my passion for cinema. Watching movies and reviewing them.

My name is Xiaoyuan Zhang. I am a postdoc researcher at MPE working on galaxy clusters and large scale structures. Before moving to MPE, I did my PhD at SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research and Leiden University from 2018 to 2022. Being an astronomer was my dream in kindergarten, purely because of my curiosity about the starry night. I am glad that my dream comes true and enjoy being an astronomer.

I am interested in the hot plasma in dark matter halos and the intergalactic space. eROSITA is a perfect telescope to capture X-ray photons from those hot gases. I am a member of the Cluster and Cosmology working group and contributed to several projects including galaxy cluster catalog.

In my spare time, I try out many different food recipes. Of course, the food I made don’t always meet my expectations. But it is enjoyable to improve these recipes just like the lab work.
 

My name is Miriam Ramos-Ceja. I am a Mexican astrophysicist. I received my bachelor’s degree from the physics department at the University of Guanajuato in Guanajuato, Mexico. In 2016, I was awarded a Ph.D. degree in Natural Science at the University of Bonn. After working as a postdoct at the Argelander Institute for Astronomy in Bonn, I moved to MPE to join the eROSITA Ground Segment team.

Since 2023 I am the head of the eROSITA Ground Segment, leading the eROSITA Operations and the eROSITA Software Development team. The operations team check and monitor the health of the eROSITA instrument. I am still amazed by being able to communicate with an instrument located 1.5 million kilometres away! The Software team develops the eROSITA Science Analysis Software System (eSASS), which is a collection of tasks, scripts and libraries that allow us to create eROSITA calibrated science data products and to perform various interactive data analysis tasks. My team is also responsible to perform the processing of eROSITA data, which are being released.

I have coordinated the eROSITA Early Data Release (EDR), and now partially coordinated the Data Release 1 (DR1). I hope scientists around the world can enjoy the released eROSITA data and discover new phenomena and astronomical objects!

My main research interests are the astrophysics of galaxy clusters using multiway-wavelength surveys, with special focus on X-rays. I have been working with galaxy clusters since my first summer internship during my bachelors back in 2007.

I am Emmanuel Artis, astrophysicist at MPE. I received my Ph.D. from the CEA Paris-Saclay. I then moved to Grenoble at the LPSC, before starting to work in the high energy group.
We are lucky to live in an era where large astronomical surveys like eROSITA are flourishing in many different countries. We can thus expect great discovery to be made in the next decades. It is a privilege to be part of it!

I have been a member of the eROSITA galaxy cluster working group for a year. My main subject of interest is the inference of cosmological parameters with galaxy clusters. I use the constraining power of the clusters detected by eROSITA to explore alternative theories of gravitation and potential deviations from general relativity. 
For the moment, we find that general relativity still describes our observations.
I am also interested in multi-wavelength observations of galaxy clusters, to study the intracluster medium and to measure de expansion rate of the universe.
In the future, I will keep working on galaxy clusters, in synergy with other large surveys like Euclid

I play different instruments, like the flute or the trombone. I also enjoy hiking in my free time.
 

My name is Jeremy Sanders. I’m an astrophysicist and I’m originally from the UK, where I grew up in the countryside in England in the border region near Wales. Previously to working at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Astronomy, at the University of Cambridge, UK, where I also studied for my PhD. My undergraduate degree was in Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge, where I specialised in Physics.
I was really interested in a variety of science topics when I was a child, including astronomy, electronics, computer programming and chemistry. What attracted me most to astronomy was the wonder of staring into the sky and being able to see the  amazingly distant but beautiful sights. With my small telescope I could look towards the milky way and see how it resolves into an uncountable numbers of stars. The dark skies where I lived in the countryside were ideal for doing astronomy. My Physics teacher at school was also interested in subject and encouraged me to take old-fashioned film photographs of the moon and other objects through my telescope and develop them myself.

My scientific area of interest is clusters of galaxies. At the moment, I am conducting a study to examine the clusters detected using eROSITA and make measurements of their shape in X-rays. It is often assumed the clusters are simple symmetric objects, but we can learn about their history by their shape, such as the activity of their central black holes, and how they interact with other clusters.
In the eROSITA project I am responsible for making the half-sky maps that are part of the data release. I am very interested in experimenting with different methods for making beautiful astronomical images. For eROSITA, I also work on the software for characterising individual sources. I have in addition been working on measuring the characteristics of the eROSITA mirrors and how sharp their focus is.

In the near future, I’m involved with a project called Einstein Probe which has just been launched. This is a collaboration between the Chinese Academy of Sciences, MPE and the European Space Agency (ESA). Although the main aim of the mission is to find bright flashes in the X-ray sky, it includes X-ray telescopes similar to what eROSITA uses. These will allow us to make detailed images of individual objects that were only observed briefly in the eROSITA survey.
In the further future I am also involved in Athena, which is a very exciting mission being developed by the ESA. This will produce very detailed images of individual objects. For clusters of galaxies, we will be able to make maps of how the gas moves around in the cluster, which will be impossible until it is launched.

My advice to young scientists would be that it’s important to keep a sense of childlike wonder about the subject you are working on. Even though you may have deadlines to meet and more mundane work to do, you need to remember why you became interested in the subject. Talking to people outside your field really helps keep this perspective.

 

My name is Tim Schrabback, I am an astrophysics professor leading the Extragalactic Astrophysics research group at the Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics of Innsbruck University. A main focus of our research is related to using a technique call weak gravitational lensing for cosmological and astrophysical investigations.

Weak lensing probes image distortions that are caused by the tidal gravitational field of massive foreground structures and imprinted onto the observed shapes of background galaxies. Analysing these distortions provides a unique approach to map the dark matter-dominated foreground mass distribution and weigh cosmological objects.

Our research group has been contributing to the eROSITA cosmology investigations by analysing weak lensing data of eROSITA clusters. These measurements constrain the absolute mass scale of the eROSITA cluster sample, thereby enabling the comparison to cosmological model predictions from simulations.

We are also part of the galaxy cluster group of the South Pole Telescope Collaboration and participate in the analysis of new weak lensing data from ESA's Euclid Space Telescope.

I am Emre Bahar. I work at MPE as a Ph.D. student with Dr. Esra Bulbul and Prof. Kirpal Nandra in the Clusters and Cosmology Group under the High-Energy Astrophysics Group. I received my bachelor's and master's degrees from Sabancı University in Turkey. Since I know myself, I have always been interested in understanding nature, which eventually led me to study astrophysics.

My research lies at the crossroads of observational astrophysics and cosmology. I am working on the X-ray observations of galaxy clusters and groups to constrain the physics governing these objects and the large-scale structure structure. For the eROSITA's first all-sky survey, I lead the efforts to understand the thermodynamic properties of galaxy groups and constrain the impact of AGN feedback on the intragroup medium. Aside from the projects I lead, I also take active roles in other collaborative studies within the Clusters and Cosmology Group in the eROSITA consortium.

The advice I would give to young scientists is that be aware that the academic path involves a lot of ups and downs and don't blame yourself too much during this journey. Like many things in life, science also involves situations that many of us have limited control over, such as being at the right place at the right time. One of my biggest desires about science is that it will be equally accessible to all.

Outside astrophysics, I enjoy cooking and watching movies in my free time. They help me free my mind from everyday struggles.

My name is Nicolas Clerc, I am a researcher at CNRS since 2017 and currently working at the IRAP institute in France. Prior to settling in Toulouse, I spent several years in Garching as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics. I obtained my PhD at CEA Saclay from the University Paris Denis-Diderot. Scientific curiosity, freedom in research, imagination and taste for science have always been part of my motivation to work as an astrophysicist.

I am interested in cosmology, in understanding the formation and evolution of large-scale structure and particularly those fascinating, multifaceted galaxy clusters. I am active in the Cosmology and Galaxy Cluster Working Group. In this first Data Release, I focused on modelling cluster selection effects; in some sense on ‘accounting for the unseen’. It is a pivotal aspect of our work since our X-ray observations, although of exquisite quality, are necessarily limited in space, time, depth, etc. It is an interesting topic to study in a collaboration such as eROSITA, because every astronomer have their own perspective on selection effects and their impact.

Among the scientific projects I would like to develop and explore, I am involved in the preparation of the future European X-ray mission Athena. It will open totally new observational windows to characterise the hot gas in galaxy clusters, its composition and kinematics.

Whenever possible, in my spare time I play the saxophone in ensembles of various sizes and musical directions.

My name is Matthias Kluge, I’m a postdoc at MPE. My fascination for astrophysics was sparked in 1999 during a partial solar eclipse near my hometown Schwerin in northern Germany.
From that grew an urge to understand the rules of the Universe, which grew stronger and stronger over the years. I did my bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees at LMU. During that period, I became interested in observational astronomy, in particular, observing galaxies with professional telescopes that are much more powerful than my small amateur telescope. During my PhD project, I have enjoyed solitude during many long observing nights at the beautiful Wendelstein observatory in the Bavarian alps.

My task for eROSITA is the optical identification of the X-ray-selected galaxy cluster candidates. When I find a gravitationally bound overdensity of galaxies, I measure (amongst other parameters) the cluster redshift, which is a proxy for its distance from us.
My other research interest lies in understanding the build up of Intracluster Light, a large but ultra-faint stellar component that permeates galaxy clusters.

Besides eROSITA, I’m involved in measuring the Intracluster Light and other low-surface brightness features observed with the brand-new EUCLID telescope. Combining the powers of both cutting-edge telescopes, one optical and one X-ray, will expand eROSITA’s discovery power to higher redshifts and probe our cosmological models with even higher precision.

In my spare time, I currently enjoy photography and DJ-ing. I had tried more thrill-seeking activities like skydiving and motorcycle riding but interests change and I’m much happier now enjoying the simple things in life.
 

My name is Silas Zelmer, I am a Ph.D. student in the High Energy Group at MPE. I am originally from Munich and received my Bachelor's and Master's degrees in physics from LMU Munich. I have always been interested in the frontiers of human knowledge, so it is no surprise that during my master's degree in theoretical particle physics I focused on the most fundamental foundations of this world, including quantum electrodynamics, quantum chromodynamics and general relativity. But on the other side of the scale, there is another extreme: the seemingly infinite vastness of our observable universe.

In particular, I find the formation of the large-scale structure with galaxy clusters at their intersections incredibly exciting. And indeed, both areas, particle physics on the smallest scales and cosmology on the largest scales, are inextricably linked - in 2019, the Dirac Medal was awarded for the groundbreaking discovery that the huge filaments of the universe emerged from the quantum fluctuations of the early, microscopic universe.
With its unsurpassed performance in the X-ray range, the eROSITA survey is an ingenious way to study galaxy clusters, as the million degree hot gas they contain emits bremsstrahlung that leaves bright disks on the eROSITA image. In the first All-Sky Survey (eRASS1), eROSITA has already detected several thousand clusters, allowing us to perform first-class statistical analyses of the composition of the Universe. In my current project, I am using the gigantic clusters to study the properties and abundance of a possible candidate for the as yet unexplained dark matter - an elementary particle called axion, which has not yet been directly observed. What excites me most about this project is that you can use the largest objects in our universe to study an elementary particle that is lighter than all the other particles we already know!

In my free time, I like to spend time with my wife, play the piano or do something else creative like writing poetry. Otherwise, I'm very active in the church, giving workshops there or meeting up with friends from there. Some other things you need to know about me include: I sometimes find myself scribbling some kind of derivation on the steamy shower wall with my finger, lost in thought and without any sense of time. Also, I am very passionate about tutoring and so it happens from time to time that even my wife has to listen to my long explanations of physical details... Well, she loves me anyway ;-)

 

I am Ang Liu, an astrophysicist working at MPE. I got my PhD in astrophysics in 2019 at Sapienza University of Rome. After that, I worked as a postdoc in INAF-Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory for one year, and then moved to the high energy group at MPE in 2020.

I am a member of the eROSITA cluster and cosmology group since 2020. My major role in the team is constructing galaxy cluster catalogs from eROSITA surveys. In particular, I am responsible for the X-ray data analysis of the eROSITA clusters. I also use these large samples of galaxy clusters to study superclusters and the large-scale structure of the Universe. In addition to large-area surveys, I am also interested in other topics on galaxy clusters, such as the thermodynamic and chemical properties of the intracluster gas, and their connection with galaxy evolution.

In the future, I will be working on X-ray astronomy for a long time. I am involved in ongoing and upcoming X-ray projects including the Einstein Probe (EP) and Hot Universe Baryon Surveyor (HUBS). I will use these instruments to perform more studies on galaxy clusters.

My name is Florian Pacaud and I am a researcher at the Argelander Institute of the University of Bonn since 2007. I am initially from France, near Paris, where I grew up and did my studies until a PhD at CEA Saclay. In contrast with many, who would express their first thrills when looking through a telescope as a youngster, I have not always dreamt of becoming an astrophysicist. But I have always had a strong interest in science broadly speaking. For my bachelor, I chose Physics as way of satisfying my own curiosity about the nature of the world we live in. Later on, I just gradually moved to astrophysics and cosmology for their metaphysical appeal and the wide variety of physical concepts they entail.

My prime interest among the many sub-fields of astrophysics is the study of galaxy clusters. These objects are at the heart of the large scale cosmic web, which connects to the evolution of the Universe as a whole, but also play a key role in shaping the galaxies that, for the most part, reside in them. This link that they establish between cosmology and astrophysics is what makes them fascinating to me.

Since the start of my academic career, I have been working on the systematic investigation of the cluster population using large scale surveys, first in X-rays with the XMM-Newton satellite, and now with Euclid in the optical and of course eROSITA. Within eROSITA, I mostly focus on topics related to understanding the mass of the detected galaxy clusters and investigating those in our immediate surroundings.   

In my spare time, I have a passion for comic books and graphic novels but otherwise simply enjoy family life and hikes.

Working in astrophysics is a great but also rather demanding job. My advice for young people interested in astrophysics: only engage in it if you have a strong motivation and resilience to pressure. However, if you do, never neglect your personal life.

My name is Thomas Reiprich, I am a professor of astrophysics at the Argelander Institute for Astronomy at the University of Bonn. I grew up in a small village in Germany and then studied physics in Paderborn, Kalamazoo (Michigan), and in Munich. Working at MPE in Garching, I obtained my PhD from LMU in Munich. My postdoc at the University of Virginia I had already started a few months before the PhD defense took place. After three years, I moved to the University of Bonn with a so-called Emmy Noether Fellowship, which allowed me to build up my own small research group. After this, a Heisenberg Professorship followed and since 2015, I have been regular professor in Bonn, enjoying teaching very much. Apart from eROSITA, I also work for the space missions Euclid and Athena.
I have always wanted to do astronomy but what I like about science in general is that, whichever scientific field one is curious about, if one digs just a bit deeper than the textbooks, one always finds a vast space of unknowns, an unlimited number of questions where no one has an answer to – yet!

Together with many great members of my group, I have been working for the eROSITA science preparation and exploitation for more than a dozen years in various functions. My main science interest is clusters of galaxies and cosmology. In particular, using the superb eROSITA telescope, my group members and I have been discovering emission filaments of hot gas that stretch vast distances (~50 million lightyears) across the Universe. Now we’re studying them – and also the very outskirts of huge nearby galaxy clusters – in detail with eROSITA, which is quite exciting.
Astronomy will strive in the future, for two main reasons. On the one hand, many large-area sky surveys at many wavelengths will come online and on the other hand, the artificial intelligence revolution will likely continue for a while – astronomy itself actually pushing it forward. These two together will transform the way we do science into a much more holistic approach, with great new insights to be gained, I’m sure, because we know by now that many things in the Universe are connected to each other and can’t be understood in isolation.

In the little spare time I have, I play a bit of rock music with my electric guitar as well as volleyball with a nice group of people.
Chance plays a role in life and, therefore, also in science. It is difficult to know what might have happened if I had taken different decisions in the past. To young scientists I’d give the advice to just follow your curiosity; something I have never regretted myself. Do your work well, be precise, true to yourself, and understand what you’re doing, and then be confident about it. More often than not you will find results that are not, or at least not quite, what you expected when you started. Your advisors or colleagues will likely come up with ideas what you might have done wrong because you obtained the “wrong” result. Take them seriously, and then disprove them!

I am Florian Kleinebreil, a PhD student working in the Extragalactic Astrophysics research group in Innsbruck, led by Prof. Schrabback. I originally started my academic career in Bonn, Germany, where I did my Master Thesis on weak gravitational lensing of galaxy clusters and luckily joined Prof. Schrabback’s research group.

Within the eROSITA DR1 I participated in the mass calibration of galaxy clusters using data from the Kilo-Degree Survey (KiDS), a large optical and near-infrared survey. While X-ray instruments like eROSITA are an excellent tool to detect galaxy clusters, other measurements are required to accurately determine their masses. Weak gravitational lensing currently is the preferred choice for this task, as the shape distortion of background galaxies behind galaxy clusters provide a purely gravitational cluster mass estimate.
For the DR1 analysis, three independent weak-lensing surveys have been employed to calibrate the eRASS1 cluster masses, the Dark Energy Survey (DES), the Hyper Suprime Cam Survey (HSC), and KiDS. I had the opportunity to provide consistency checks between the three surveys, which has rarely been done before. I was amazed that the three surveys, which have been conducted using different telescopes by different people in different countries provide statistically consistent cluster mass measurements!

My best advice to young scientists is to follow whatever truly interests you, and not necessarily look for the highest-paid job, but great coworkers and fascinating research.

My name is Johan Comparat, I am a researcher at MPE. I come from Grenoble France (in the middle of the alps). I grew up in the mountains and I enjoyed the skiing, mountaineering and climbing possibilities. I have always been puzzled by the mysteries the Universes poses to us and wanted, already in high school, to participate in solving them. I got my PhD in 2013 (LAM, CNRS, Marseille, France), and after a three-year post-doc in Madrid, Spain (a beautiful place!), I arrive to MPE, Garching to endeavor the Universe in X-rays.

I am interested in the large-scale structure subtended by galaxies in the Universe and in particular how it looks in the X-ray wavelength range. I have a few favorite scientific questions: what is dark matter? What drives the accelerated expansion of the Universe? what is the role of the hot circumgalactic medium in galaxy formation and evolution, and its possible implication in the emergence of the galaxy bimodality? How do active galactic nuclei populate the cosmic web of dark matter haloes? The eROSITA observatory has unique capabilities and the interpretation of its observations should bring answers to these questions.

In my spare time, I enjoy spending time with my family, playing music (piano, accordion), reading, sports (climbing, judo).

My name is Riccardo Seppi, and I am currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Geneva in Switzerland.
I was born in a small village in the Italian Alps. I always had some interest in astronomy: as a young kid, I spent time looking at the sky with my grandmother, asking her whether there was anything “after the airplanes“. My mother also told me I would have to go to University to study the subject, and I asked where the University was located in our village of 300 people :) The idea to make it a job arrived much later of course, towards the end of high school. I spent my University years in Italy between Trento and the lovely Bologna. During my master's, I developed an interest in the cosmological evolution of the Universe, and I was lucky to find the perfect PhD at MPE to develop it, where I had an amazing time working with eROSITA.
I am particularly interested in galaxy clusters and their role within the large-scale structure of the Universe, because they can tackle various key scientific questions, such as cosmological properties of dark energy and dark matter, as well as gas physics and its relation to activty from active galactic nuclei. Solid theories, accurate simulations, and high-quality observations are all key to answer such questions, and my interest overlaps between these subjects. In Geneva, I am developing simulations for deep observations of galaxy groups. At MPE, I mainly worked on simulations to understand the population of sources detected by eROSITA, and now I am leading an article about the clustering of galaxy clusters. This is a statistical study of their distribution in space-time and eROSITA is now providing data suitable to explore this topic with new approaches. Our work reveals precious information about the connection between clusters and groups to dark matter haloes and cosmological parameters.

Outside office hours you will likely find me playing sports and exercising. I love the game of basketball because you need to develop your individual skills to improve, but also understand how to work with teammates to play well together. In recent years I also started running more seriously. I like it because successes and failures strictly depend on you, and with training, you can really improve a lot.
I think that life in academia offers serious challenges because of its instability. However, I also view it as an opportunity to get to know different countries, cultures, and friends. To younger students reading these lines, my little advice is to believe in yourself, be confident with your choices, and keep developing your interests. Planning long-term in this world is hard, so as long as you enjoy what you do daily, the stars (or better, galaxy clusters) will align for you :)