Jacqueline Meulman, Richard Gill, Willem Heiser, Theo Stijnen, Aad van der Vaart, Fred van Eeuwijk, Paul Eilers

Willem R. van Zwet (Leiden University), Jerome H. Friedman (Stanford University)

September 2009

Statistics is the art of drawing conclusions about phenomena in which chance plays a role. The randomness may arise through a variety of reasons: the intrinsic random nature of a phenomenon, unavoidable noise in an experiment, conscious randomization of experimental or measurement units, or as a best approximation to reality. The chance phenomena occur in a broad range of situations. This has rendered statistical science a highly multidisciplinary undertaking, but with a core body of concepts and methods that are common to the diverse applications.

The master track in Statistical Science provides students with a thorough introduction to the general philosophy and methodology of statistical modelling and data analysis, and offers two specializations: into the applications of statistical methods to the life sciences and to the behavioural sciences, respectively.