Barbara Ercolano is an Italian astrophysicist known for her work on interstellar dust, star formation, and protoplanetary disks. She is the Professor for Theoretical Astrophysics in the at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Ercolano is originally from Naples, and studied astrophysics at University College London. After postdoctoral research at University College London, the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and the University of Cambridge, she became a lecturer in astrophysics at the University of Exeter. She moved to the University of Munich as a professor in 2010.