Eric Bellm

Eric Bellm is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Washington and a Fellow of the DIRAC Institute. He serves as the Alert Production Science Lead for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and Survey Scientist for the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF).

His research focuses on using optical variability data to identify rare compact binaries, particularly neutron star and black hole systems in our Galaxy. His work spans observation, instrumentation development, and large-scale data analysis for time-domain astronomy.

Bellm leads the University of Washington team building the real-time data processing pipelines for the Vera C. Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which will generate approximately 15 terabytes of images nightly. His team develops algorithms for calibration, astrometry, image differencing, and atmospheric characterization to meet the observatory's stringent performance targets.

His research has included studies of gamma-ray bursts during his graduate work at UC Berkeley, where he was part of the NuSTAR commissioning team and flew gamma-ray Compton telescopes on stratospheric balloons.

• DIRAC Institute Fellow
• Alert Production Science Lead for Vera C. Rubin Observatory
• Survey Scientist for Zwicky Transient Facility
• Founding Project Scientist for ZTF

Bellm actively mentors students at all levels, currently advising graduate students David Wang and Andy Tzanidakis, as well as undergraduates Allison Crossland and Giovanni Gollotti. He has previously mentored numerous postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates who have gone on to successful careers in academia and industry. He teaches ASTR 597A: 'Astronomy with Rubin Observatory and LSST' at the University of Washington.

Bellm's laboratory work centers on developing data pipelines and analysis tools for time-domain surveys, with particular focus on the Rubin Observatory alert stream that will deliver information about ten million moving, varying, or exploding objects detected each night.