From Tom Loredo: Jogesh Babu and Eric Feigelson have just received NSF funding to establish a Center for Astrostatistics at Penn State University. Among their principal projects in their first year will be a two-week Summer School in astrostatistics to be offered in June 2005. The first week will be geared toward those with little or no formal statistical training, and will comprise an intense course on basic statistics for astronomers, covering key topics ranging from exploratory analysis and descriptive statistics to estimation, hypothesis testing and likelihood methods. In the second week at least two supplementary courses will be offered on more specialized topics, for those who have completed the first week or who already have significant astrostatistics expertise. Likely topics in this first year include image analysis, and computational methods and tools. Courses will likely include hands-on experience performing analyses with the free R language. Attendees can earn graduate credits from PSU. For more information, monitor the Center for Astrophysics web site: http://www.astrostatistics.psu.edu/ The exact agenda is still in a state of flux. ====================================================================== Note added 2005-jan-24: ====================================================================== From: G Jogesh Babu Date: Fri, 21 Jan 2005 17:54:53 -0500 The Center for Astrostatistics at Penn State announces the first of an annual series of summer schools in statistical methodology for students and researchers in astronomy and physics. The purpose is to provide both a solid foundation in fundamentals and exposure to advanced topics in modern statistics along with Practicum sessions in which participants will obtain hands-on experience in the computer-based analysis of astronomical data sets. The courses are taught by top experts with a curriculum specifically designed for the needs of physical scientists. Statistical inference for astronomers June 5-10 Spatial processes and image analysis June 12-14 Computational algorithms for astrostatistics June 15-17 ** DETAILS AVAILABLE AT http://astrostatistics.psu.edu/stat05.html ** Also, you are invited to attend the cross-disciplinary research conference "Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy IV" next year at Penn State, June 11-14 2006. Please pass this notice on to others who might be interested. Professor G. J. Babu, Director Professor E. D. Feigelson, Associate Director Center for Astrostatistics Department of Statistics Pennsylvania State University