Conference on Long-Range Dependence, Self-Similarity, and Heavy Tails

Regents Of The University Of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor MI

Investigators

Abstract

The PI is co-organizing a conference on long-range dependence, self-similarity, and heavy tails, which will take place in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina in April 2012. More details can be found on the conference web-site http://lrd2012.web.unc.edu. The three themes of the conference are studied and arise across a wide range of disciplines and applications, including probability, statistics, geophysics, telecommunications, engineering, economics, finance and insurance. Many of these fields were literally transformed by the use of models involving long-range dependence and heavy tails. For example, with a dramatic shift from circuit to packet switching in modern communication networks, these models took over the dominant place from the models based on Poisson assumptions and exponential distributions. New exciting areas of application such as social networks are posing new challenges where power laws, scaling limits, and self-similarity phenomena emerge in a new light. The conference will feature talks from world renowned experts as well as poster presentations by students and junior researchers. It is expected to have an important and long lasting scientific, educational, and socioeconomic impact. The conference will foster the exchange of ideas between probabilists, theoretical and applied statisticians, other scientists, as well as students and practitioners. This will likely lead to formulating new problems relevant to important applications, thereby stimulating the development of new fundamental theoretical research. Many of these problems are expected to have a broad educational, scientific, and general impact on society. For example, in connection to understanding risk, gauging uncertainty in complex setting, or taking advantage of emerging network structures. Most importantly, the event would introduce young researchers and graduate students to important areas of research.