CCA Colloquium: Gwen Eadie

Title: Astrostatistics in the Era of Large Surveys: from the Milky Way to individual stars

Abstract: Astrostatistics is an interdisciplinary field that lives on the boundary between astronomy and statistics. This interdisciplinary field seeks to answer fundamental science questions about the universe while simultaneously inspiring new and improved statistical methods for data analysis.

In this talk, I will introduce two areas of my research in astrostatistics. The first covers hierarchical Bayesian analysis in the context of the Milky Way Galaxy, applied to data from the Gaia satellite. The second covers a new time series analysis method in the context of asteroseismology (the study of oscillations in stars’ interiors), applied to data from the Kepler spacecraft. The surveys performed by the Gaia satellite and the Kepler spacecraft are early examples of big data in astronomy, and thus make good testing grounds for our new astrostatistics methods in preparation for upcoming large surveys.

To watch this colloquia remotely use this Zoom link