The CCD, of course, is the workhorse of modern Astronomy. I cannot even imagine how things would be without it.

Actually, Boyle & Smith (1970, Bell Systems Technical Journal, 49, 587) and Amelio, Tompsett & Smith (1970, Bell Systems Tech. J., 49, 593), according to the detailed cite by the Nobel committee.

I would however change the emphasis away from Gaussians to Poisson.

PS: Apparently I can’t embed videos here. Anyway, his thesis is that mathematical education over the past century has concentrated entirely on taking students to the pinnacle of being able to do Calculus and leave them there high and dry. Instead, he suggests that the ultimate goal of mathematical education should be statistics, which is of more practical use to more people. I don’t think he means to suggest that Calculus should not be taught — I couldn’t even understand propagation of errors without Calculus — but rather that the emphasis must shift to a more practical goal. I was brought up to believe that all the world is a partial differential equation, but even I can see that this is a sensible suggestion.

——————————————————————
First Announcement and Call for Applications
——————————————————————

The “International Max Planck Research School for Astronomy & Cosmic Physics at the University of Heidelberg” (IMPRS-HD)

announces the

— 4th Heidelberg Summer School:

— Statistical Inferences from Astrophysical Data

— August 10-14, 2009

IMPRS Heidelberg invites graduate students and postdocs to its 4th Heidelberg Summer School. This year’s school is centered on how to draw scientific inferences from astrophysical data sets. We will also discuss proper statistical methods that are crucial for testing specific astrophysical models.

The school will present essential statistical concepts and techniques. These concepts will be illustrated through various astrophysical examples. Approaches such as Monte Carlo, maximum likelihood techniques, Bayesian statistics, parametric tests, biases in censored/incomplete data, or time-series analysis will be applied in computer exercises.

The main lecturing program is presented by invited speakers and is accompanied by practical exercises and also science talks on specific topics by local experts.

Invited lecturers are:

— David W. HOGG, New York University

— Ian McHARDY, University of Southampton

— William H. PRESS, University of Texas, Austin

Deadline for application is June 15, 2009.

Please find more information, our poster, and the application
forms under
www.mpia.de/imprs-hd/
www.mpia.de/imprs-hd/SummerSchools/2009/

A limited number of grants are available to partially cover travel expenses of participants.

IMPRS-HD is an independent part of the Heidelberg Graduate School for Fundamental Physics.

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.