A WEALTH OF INFORMATION ON BLAZAR VARIABILITY ABOVE 100 MEV IS AVAILABLE THANKS TO THE FERMI-LAT. HOWEVER THERE IS STILL NO CONCRETE THEORETICAL MODEL THAT CAN EXPLAIN FROM FIRST PRINCIPLES THE MULTI-SCALE VARIABILITY OF BLAZARS. WE PROPOSE TO BRIDGE THE GAP BETWEEN THEORY AND OBSERVATIONS BY DEVELOPING A MODEL FOR GAMMA-RAY VARIABILITY FROM FIRST PRINCIPLES. TO DO SO WE WILL COMBINE RADIATIVE TRANSFER CALCULATIONS WITH PARTICLE-IN-CELL SIMULATIONS OF MAGNETIC RECONNECTION TO COMPUTE GAMMA-RAY LIGHT CURVES FROM RECONNECTION EVENTS IN BLAZAR JETS. USING VARIOUS DIAGNOSTICS WE WILL COMPARE ON DIFFERENT TIMESCALES OUR SIMULATED LIGHT CURVES WITH THOSE OF FERMI MONITORED BLAZARS. WITH THE PROPOSED RESEARCH WE WILL BE ABLE TO SHED LIGHT ON THE ORIGIN OF BLAZAR GAMMA-RAY VARIABILITY.

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