Eric James Christensen (born in 1977[1]) is an American astronomer and a discoverer of comets. Since 2023, he works as an Observing Specialist Manager at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Before this, he was a staff scientist with the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS), where he was responsible for the survey's near-Earth object operation.
In 2003, Christensen joined the Catalina Sky Survey (CSS) near Tucson, Arizona as an observer. He was involved in software development during a major equipment upgrade at the observatory.[3] Around 2007,[citation needed] Christensen left CSS to work at the Gemini South telescope in Chile as part of the science operations team, including hunting for meteorites in the Atacama Desert.[2]
In 2012, Christensen returned to CSS as a Survey Operations Manager.[4][5][1] For ten years, he was the director of the survey's near-Earth object (NEO) operations, including observing, software development, cadence optimization, telescope and instrument maintenance and collimation, survey modeling and optimization, and project management.[2]
In August 2023, Christensen returned to Chile with his family to join the Vera C. Rubin Observatory as an Observing Specialist Manager.[4] The telescope is expected to see first light in January 2025, and start survey operations in August 2025.[6]