June 9-14, 2008

Enrollment limit reached. Registration closed

Center for Astrostatistics

Astronomy at the beginning of the 21st century, and particularly research arising from wide-field survey observatories at various wavebands, finds itself with serious challenges in statistical treatments of data to achieve its astrophysical goals. A vast range of statistical problems arise in the scientific interpretation of astronomical studies involving sampling, multivariate and survival analysis, image and spatial analysis, signal processing and time series analysis, nonlinear regression, and more.

It is this diversity of statistical issues confronting astronomy today that led to the creation of the Center for Astrostatistics at Penn State in 2003 to facilitate development and promulgation of statistical expertise and toolkits for astronomy and related observational sciences. The Center is housed in the Department of Statistics. The activities of the Center are multi-faceted: conduct and support research on forefront problems; provide forums where active astrostatistical researchers can interact; foster new cross-disciplinary collaborations; liaise with other organizations oriented towards statistical applications in physical sciences. One of the aims is to disseminate advanced methodologies to the wider astronomical and space science communities through curriculum development, tutorial workshops, Web-based resources, and public software.

The Center will serve as a crossroads where researchers at the interfaces between statistics, data analysis, astronomy, space and observational physics collaborate, develop and share methodologies, and together prepare the next generation of researchers.

The 2nd IIA - PennState Astrostatistics School (July 9-16, 2008)
Vainu Bappu Observatory, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Kavalur, India.

Past Programs

• The IIA-Penn State Astrostatistics School (July 2-7, 2007): The Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and the Center for Astrostatistics have jointly organized a 6-day school in statistical inference for practicing astrophysicists and physicists affiliated with Indian institutions. The school is based on the curriculum developed for the Summer Schools in Statistics for Astronomers at the Center for Astrostatistics. The school was held on the picturesque campus of the Vainu Bappu Observatory, a field station of the IIA, located near the village of Kavalur in the Javadi Hills, about 175 km south-east of Bangalore. Pictures.


• Summer School in Statistics for Astronomers III (June 4-9, 2007): Schedule and Lectures,   Pictures). It received the 2007 University Continuing Education Association (Mid-Atlantic Region) award for exemplary non-credit program development.


• Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy IV (June 12-15, 2006): The fourth in a series of interdisciplinary international research conferences (Conference Program, Photographs, Conference Poster).


• Second Summer School in Statistics for Astronomers and Physicists was held during June 6-10, 2006 (Schedule and Lectures,  Pictures).


• SAMSI   Astrostatistics Program (January - May, 2006): A semester long research program on Astrostatistics was held at Statistical and Applied Mathematical Sciences Institute. The program started with Tutorials [Videos of Tutorials] followed by Opening Workshop (January 23-25, 2006).   Four Working Groups (Exoplanets, Surveys & Population Studies, Gravitational Lensing, and Source Detection & Feature Detection) met on a regular schedule at SAMSI.   Photographs.


• A Summer school in Statistics for Astronomers and Physicists was held during June 5-17, 2005 at the Pennsylvania State University (Summer School Schedule, Photographs, Summer School Poster).