2022 AIG Student Paper Competition

The Astrostatistics Interest Group of the American Statistical Association (ASA/AIG) sponsors a student paper competition, with the submitted papers being related to the development and/or application of statistical methods to problems in astronomy, astrophysics, or cosmology. The winner and (up to) four other finalists will present their papers in the ASA Astrostatistics Interest Group Topic-contributed session at the 2022 Joint Statistical Meetings. Each finalist will receive $100, while the overall winner will receive an additional $400.

Application deadline: 11:59 PM, December 13, 2021

Eligibility:

To be eligible for this award, the candidate must have been a full-time student (undergraduate, master’s, or Ph.D.) as of November 1, 2021. The candidate must be the principal contributor to a research paper, and the advisor (or another co-author) must write a letter stating that the candidate had primary responsibility for the research and write-up. The candidate must be a member of the ASA Astrostatistics Interest Group (to join, see the details on the interest group website). Students who have previously won the Best Astrostatistics Paper award are not eligible to participate. The ASA has additional policies for student paper competitions; you can familiarize yourself with those here.

Submission Requirements:

A submission consists of sending an e-mail to Peter Freeman (pfreeman@cmu.edu) with the subject line “Astrostatistics 2022 Student Paper Competition” and the following attachments as PDF files (include all the attachments in a single email):

The curriculum vitae of the applicant.
A letter from the advisor (or other co-author) verifying the student status of the candidate and briefly describing the candidate’s role in the research and writing of the paper.
The paper, with the author list and other identifying factors removed, but including all tables, figures, and appendices, as a single PDF file, with a maximum limit of 30 pages, with 11-point font, single-spaced, and with one-inch margins on all sides. The paper must be either submitted for publication or published during the calendar year 2021.
A summarized version of the paper, with the author list and other identifying factors removed, as a single PDF file, with a maximum limit of 4 pages of text, with 11-point font, single-spaced, and with one-inch margins on all sides. The title and (summarized) abstract should be provided on the first page of text. Up to four additional pages are allowed for relevant figures and tables, as well as references.

Selection of Winners:

Papers will be blind-reviewed by a committee determined by the officers of the Astrostatistics Interest Group. Criteria for selection will include, but are not limited to, novelty in theory/methods/applications, significance and potential impact of the research, and clarity of writing and presentation. Decisions of the committee are final.

In the initial stage, finalists are chosen on the basis of their summarized paper submissions. A maximum of five finalists will be announced by mid-January of 2022. From those five, a winner is chosen, on the basis of the full paper submissions. Note that to be eligible for cash prizes, all finalists must submit abstracts and register for JSM 2022 through the official JSM abstract submission system. (Those who are not selected as finalists are still strongly encouraged to submit a contributed abstract to JSM 2022.) Finalists must attend and present their work in the ASA Astrostatistics Interest Group Topic-contributed session at JSM 2022 in Washington DC.

Previous Winners

Here is a list of the previous winners