Dr. Esra Bulbul

scientist
high-energy astrophysics
+49 89 30000-3502
+49 89 30000-3569
    • X5 1.4.03

    Main Focus
    Brief Bio:

    Dr. Esra Bulbul serves as the lead scientist for cluster science and cosmology within the SRG/eROSITA collaboration. She holds a tenured research group leader (W2) position at the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in the High Energy Astrophysics Group and is a university lecturer in the Department of Physics at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, currently pursuing habilitation. Dr. Bulbul earned her Ph.D. in physics from the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Prior to joining MPE, she held an astrophysicist position at the Harvard & Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) and completed postdoctoral fellowships at CfA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. She chairs the SRG/eROSITA consortium's clusters and cosmology team, the Cosmology and Fundamental Physics Working Group for NewAthena (ESA's Space Telescope).


    Dr. Bulbul's research interests are focused on understanding the growth of structure and the fundamental physics of the universe, including the nature of dark matter and dark energy, by utilizing observations of clusters of galaxies detected in large area multi-wavelength surveys. Her work received comprehensive media coverage from Nature News, Scientific American, MIT News, Science News, Phys.org, Astronomy Magazine, and other media sources. Dr. Bulbul's work on dark matter searches was selected among the top ten research highlights of the decade by the American Physical Society. In 2020, Dr. Bulbul was awarded the European Research Council's Consolidator Grant for the project "DarkQuest: Shedding Light on the Nature of Dark Matter and Dark Energy with Multi-wavelength All-Sky Surveys". The ERC Consolidator Grants recognize exceptional researchers with a strong scientific track record and great potential, based in EU Member States or associated countries. In 2025, Dr. Bulbul was awarded the prestigous Mid-Career Prize by the High Astrophysics Energy Division of the American Astronomical Society for her "singular role in the success of the eROSITA Cluster and Cosmology Team results, developing the largest galaxy cluster catalog to date, and obtaining the most precise constraints on the matter distribution in our universe via the cluster mass function."



    Publications:

    https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/public-libraries/SyZPvexPSE2oOhxYds1TsA

    Research Interests:

    • Cosmology
    • Dark Matter Searches
    • Large Scale Structure
    • Physics of Galaxy Groups and Clusters
    • Large Area Multi-wavelength Surveys


    Awards and Grants:


    Administrative Appointments:

    • Chair, NewAthena Cosmology and Fundamental Physics Working Group, 2025- Present
    • Member, Science Advisory Board of the Instituto de Fisica de Cantabria
    • Chair, eROSITA Clusters and Cosmology Group, 2019 - Present
    • Member, eROSITA Consortium Board, 2019 -Present
    • Co-chair, Athena Physics Beyond the Standard Model Topical Panel, 2020 - 2025
    • Co-chair, NASA Athena Science Study Team, 2019
    • NASA Representative, Athena XIFU Science Advisory Team, 2016 - 2019


    Press:

    Dr. Bulbul's research has been covered in major media outlets


    Open Positions:


    Collaboration Memberships:

    SRG/eROSITA, Euclid, Arcus, Athena, Hitomi X-ray Observatories, Rubin Observatory, SDSS-V, 4MOST Spectroscopic Telescope, South Pole Telescope, BabyIAXO

    Teaching:

    Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Faculty of Physics, Physics of Cosmic Plasmas (2024)


    Current Group Members:

    Dr. Emmanuel Artis, postdoc (2022 - present)

    Dr. Matthias Kluge, postdoc (2022- present)

    Dr. Ang Liu, postdoc (2020 - 2025)

    Dr. Nicola Malavasi,  Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow (2023-present)

    Dr. Xiaoyuan Zhang, postdoc (2022 - present)

    Emre Bahar, Ph.D. Student (2020 - 2024)

    Fabian Balzer, Ph.D. Student (2022 - present)

    Silas Zelmer, Ph.D. Student (2023 - present)

    Ziyu Ding, Ph.D. Student, CSC Fellow (2025 - present)

    Luca Fiorino, Ph.D. Student (2025 - present)

    Fillippo Guestella, Masters Student

    Jan Strunk, Masters Student

    Gioacomo Tonelli, Masters Student




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