The CfA is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the Cepheid period-luminosity relation on Nov 6, 2008. See http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/events/2008/leavitt/ for details.

[Update 10/03] For a nice introduction to the story of Henrietta Swan Leavitt, listen to this Perimeter Institute talk by George Johnson: http://pirsa.org/06050003/

[Update 11/06] The full program is now available. The symposium begins at Noon today.

Quintessential Contributions:
Celebrating Major Birthdays of Statistical Ideas and Their Inventors
When: Saturday, September 27, 2008, 9:45 AM – 5:00 PM
Where: Radcliffe Gymnasium, 18 Mason Street, Cambridge, MA

This symposium features four distinguished speakers who will talk about four most celebrated statistical researches of four most renown statisticians. Click here for the details.

The contents are only spanned about 100 years and there are great chances that my mind still favors the history of astronomy over the history of statistics. However, there will be another presentation by Prof. Stigler on Monday (Sept. 29th) at the statistics department (click here for a pdf flyer) titled The Five Most Consequential Ideas in the History of Statistics and the last sentence “And, no, Bayes Theorem is not in the list.” in the abstract intrigues and tempts me to change my mind.

I’d like to share the information of this highly anticipated symposium and colloquium with you particularly with those who live in/near Cambridge.