Center for Astrostatistics

Astrostatistics Image

Summer School in Statistics for Astronomers IV (June 9-14, 2008): To enroll for the summer school visit the registration page.

Astronomical Data Analysis V Conference will be held at Heraklion, Crete, Greece, during May 7-9, 2008.

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

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 Mid-Atlantic Region University Continuing Education Association award for exemplary non-credit program development.

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 followed by Opening Workshop (January 23-25, 2006). Many Working Groups met throughout the semester, focusing on research areas determined by the opening workshop.

Opening Workshop: The Astrostatistics Opening Workshop was held during January 23-25, 2006. Six workshop sessions (Exoplanets, Surveys and Population Studies, Statistics Issues in Particle Physics, Source Detection and Feature Detection, Gravitational Lensing, Time Series in Astronomy) were organized to review the key astronomical/astrophysical issues and current methodological practice, and to identify promising directions for astrostatistical research.

Tutorial 1. Bayesian Astrostatistics (January 18-20, 2006), Tom Loredo (Cornell) - Leader.
This three-day session will include lectures and several practicum classes on the basic theory and practice of Bayesian statistics, using examples from astronomy.

Tutorial 2. Nonparametric Statistics and Machine Learning for Astronomers(January 21-22, 2006), Larry Wasserman (Carnegie-Mellon) - Leader.
This session will introduce astronomers to modern methods in nonparametric statistics. The tutorial will also include implementation details in the R language.

Tutorial 3. Astronomy for Statisticians (January 21-22, 2006), William Jeffreys (UTexas) and Eric Feigelson (Penn State) - Leaders.
This session will review the modern understanding of our universe spanning planetary systems, stars, the Milky Way Galaxy, extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. Statistical issues underlying the astronomical studies will be emphasized and discussed.

Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy IV (June 12-15, 2006): The fourth in a series of interdisciplinary international research conferences, Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy, was held at the Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA.