1. Summer School in Statistics for Astronomers VII (June 6-10, 2011)
2. Pre-conference Tutorials (June 11-12, 2011)
3. Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy V (June 13-17, 2011)*

*Web site: http://astrostatistics.psu.edu/su11scma5/

Registration is now open until May 6
(Summer School registration may close earlier if the enrollment limit is reached)

Contributed papers for the SCMA V conference are welcome

Summer School in Statistics for Astronomers: The seventh summer school is an intensive week covering basic statistical inference, several fields of applied statistics, and hands-on experience with the R computing environment. Topics include: exploratory data analysis, hypothesis testing, parameter estimation, regression, bootstrap resampling, model selection & goodness-of-fit, maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods, nonparametrics, spatial processes, and times series. Instructors are mostly faculty members in statistics.

Pre-conference tutorials: Instruction in four areas of astrostatistical interest presented during the weekend between the Summer School and SCMA V conference. Topics are: Bayesian computation and MCMC; data mining; R for astronomers; and wavelets for image analysis. Instructors are members of the SCMA V Scientific Organizing Committee.

SCMA V conference: Held every five years, SCMA conferences are the premier cross-disciplinary forum for research statisticians and astronomers to discuss methodological issues of mutual interest. Session topics include: statistical modeling in astronomy, Bayesian analysis across astronomy; Bayesian cosmology; data mining and informatics; sparsity; interpreting astrophysical simulations; time domain astronomy; spatial and image analysis; and future directions for astrostatistics. Invited lectures will be followed by cross-disciplinary commentaries. The conference welcomes contributed papers from statisticians and astronomers.

Visit http://astrostatistics.psu.edu/su11scma5/ for more information and registration

Contacts:
Eric Feigelson, Dept. of Astronomy & Astrophysics, Penn State, edf@astro.psu.edu
G. Jogesh Babu, Dept. of Statistics, Penn State, babu@stat.psu.edu

Summer School in Statistics for Astronomers V
June 1-6, 2009
Penn State University
http://astrostatistics.psu.edu/su09/

The fifth annual Penn State Summer School in Statistics for Astronomers will be held at Penn State. This is a 6-day course in fundamental statistical inference designed to provide physical scientists, particularly young researchers in astronomy, with a strong conceptual foundation in modern statistics and to develop a repertoire of well-established techniques applicable to observational astronomy. Classroom instruction is interspersed with hands-on analysis of astronomical data using the public-domain R software package. The course is taught by a team of statistics and astronomy professors with opportunity for discussion of methodological issues.

Statistical techniques covered include:

* exploratory data analysis
* hypothesis testing and parameter estimation
* regression & confidence interval estimation
* model selection & goodness-of-fit
* maximum likelihood methods & Bayes’ Theorem
* non-parametric methods
* Monte Carlo methods
* Poisson processes
* time series analysis

INTERESTED PARTICIPANTS SHOULD REGISTER AT http://astrostatistics.psu.edu/su09/reg.html
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: May 1, 2009 (or when the enrollment limit reaches)
REGISTRATION FEE: $250.

The 2009 Summer School is organized by Penn State University’s Center for Astrostatistics. It will be modeled on the last four Penn State Summer Schools and the 2008 Indian Institute of Astrophysics-Penn State Summer School. See http://astrostatistics.psu.edu/ for past lecture notes. This Web site http://astrostatistics.psu.edu/su09/ also gives information on travel, lodging, and visas.

http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/GLAST

and intends to post status reports and related information on it.