Friday, 24 September, 2004                                                                   8:30 AM - 4PM

Venue: The Marvin Center, George Washington University , 800 21st Street NW , Washington , DC

The objective of this meeting is to highlight the traditional and growing partnership and synergy among statistics, mathematics, and computational sciences, and their contributions to other disciplines such as physical, biological, environmental, and social sciences.

With partial support from the Army Research Office (ARO), the Institute for Reliability and Risk Analysis (IRRA) in the Department of Statistics (the Columbia College of Arts and Sciences), the George Washington University, is organizing this inaugural symposium .The institute develops mathematical tools and methodologies for the assessment and the management of uncertainties in complex systems. The broader interests of the institute are in the modeling of complex highly interactive dynamical systems that will contribute to better understanding of a wider class of applications ranging from reliable performance of critical infrastructure systems to functioning of social and economic networks. While a major focus of this meeting is on probabilistic, statistical, and computational methods, the broader context of this symposium is aimed at a wider audience represented by the Columbian College of Arts and Science (particularly, by the departments of Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics). This inaugural symposium will feature the following pre-eminent Mathematical scientists, whose life-time achievements have made seminal contributions to the synergy of mathematics, statistics, and computational sciences.

Speakers:

• Professor James Glimm , (2004 Medal of Science winner, member NAS) SUNY at Stony Brook, Large-scale computing, and mathematical modeling of multi-physics
• Professor David Mumford, (Fields Medalist, MacArthur Fellow, member NAS.) Brown University , Stochasticity, pattern theory, and Mathematics of perception
• Professor S. R. S. Varadhan, (FRS, member NAS) Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University . Extreme events and the large deviation theory
• Professor Bin Yu, (Fellow of IMS and Fellow of IEEE) University of California at Berkeley , Remote sensing, Statistical theory/Machine learning and Bio-Informatics

REGISTRATION IS FREE. All are very welcome. Please email jchandra@gwu.edu to let us know that you plan to attend.

Agenda:

0845-0900 Opening Remarks/Announcements

Session 1 Chair: David C. Arney, Army Research Office

0900-1000 Statistical Models for Simulation Errors and their Role in Prediction and UncertaintyQuantification, Professor James Glimm , SUNY at Stony Brook (Introduced by Donald Lehman, Executive VP for Academic Affairs, GWU)

1000-1030 Break

1030-1130 Embracing Statistical Challenges in the Information Technology Age, Professor Bin Yu, University of California at Berkeley (Introduced by Efstathia Bura, GWU )

1130- 1300 Lunch Break

Session 2 Chair: Mou-Hsiung Chang, Army Research Office

1300-1400 Extreme Events and Large Deviation Theory, Professor S. R. S. Varadhan, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences (Introduced by Tapan Nayak, GWU)

1400-1500 ComputerVision: A Nexus of Mathematics, Statistics and Computations, Professor David Mumford, Brown University (Introduced by Nozer Singpurwalla, GWU)

1500- 1600 Reception

Contact Details:

Jagdish Chandra, Research Professor, Department of Statistics , George Washington University, Washington, DC.Tel: (202) 994-0179 ; E-mail: jchandra@gwu.edu

Directions and Parking:

Foggy Bottom/GWU metro stop is located on the Orange/Blue lines. Marvin Center is short 3-block walk from the Marvin Center. Parking: A visitor's parking garage is located between 23rd and 22nd Streets and H and Eye Streets. The visitor entrance is on Eye Street. The campus map is at: http://www.gwu.edu/~map/.
For a complete list of upcoming seminars check the Department's seminar web site: http://www.gwu.edu/~stat/seminars/Fall2004.htm