[4] Carollo began her studies at the University of Palermo[5] where she earned a laurea degree in physics in 1987, with a specialization in biophysics.

She worked for more than four years outside of academia before starting a PhD in astrophysics at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where she graduated in 1994.

She contributed as a member of the Science Oversight Committee to the development of the WFC3 camera[7] which was installed on the Hubble Space Telescope in 2009.

In 2012, she entered the Top Italian Scientist list from VIA Academy[8] and in 2013 she was awarded the Winton Capital Research Prize.

[citation needed] Her early work established the relation between the metallicity gradient and stellar mass in galactic spheroids, demonstrated the presence of dark matter halos beyond their half-light radii and was seminal in discovering and characterizing disk-like (pseudo) bulges and nuclear massive star clusters in disk galaxies like the Milky Way.

[11] The PhD student reached out to ETH Ombusdman Wilfred van Gunsteren, complaining that she was insufficiently supervised and had been bullied by Professor Carollo.

[18] A special committee was convened in accordance with the ETH Professors' Ordinance which gave with final recommendation that Prof. Carollo should not be dismissed.

[21] Similar cases happened at the Max Planck Society and 145 women scientists signed an open letter to express their concern.

[23][24] One Swiss online magazine, Republik,[25] took sides with Carollo and criticized the ETH Zürich's handling of the case in a series of articles in 2019.