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Best Student Paper Award 2021

ASA Astrostatistics Interest Group

The Astrostatistics Interest Group of the American Statistical Association (ASA/AIG) is pleased to sponsor a student paper competition for research in the statistical application, methodological, or theoretical development to problems in astronomy, astrophysics, or cosmology. The winner and (up to) four finalists will present their papers in the ASA Astrostatistics Interest Group Topic-contributed session at JSM 2021. The overall winner will also receive a cash prize of $500.

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, 2020. 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, familiarize yourself with those here.

Application deadline: December 12, 2020.

Formal application consists of sending an e-mail to Dr. Vinay Kashyap (vkashyap@cfa.harvard.edu) with the subject line “Astrostatistics 2021 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 authors list and other identifying factors removed, but including all tables, figures, and appendices, as a single PDF file, with a maximum double-side printable page limit of 15 sheets, with 11 point font, single-spaced, and 1-inch margins on all sides. The paper must be either submitted for publication or published during the calendar year 2020.

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. A maximum of 5 finalists will be announced by mid-January of 2021. The Winner will also be selected at this time, but will be announced only during the dedicated topic-contributed session during JSM 2021. To be eligible for the overall prize, finalists must submit abstracts and register for JSM 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 2021.) Finalists must attend and present their work in the ASA Astrostatistics Interest Group Topic-contributed session at JSM 2021, on the topic of their paper.