This volume contains a selection of chapters based on papers to be presented at the Fifth Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy Symposium. The symposium will be held June 13-15th at Penn State University. Modern astronomical research faces a vast range of statistical issues which have spawned a revival in methodological activity among astronomers. The Statistical Challenges in Modern Astronomy V conference will bring astronomers and statisticians together to discuss methodological issues of common interest. Time series analysis, image analysis, Bayesian methods, Poisson processes, nonlinear regression, maximum likelihood, multivariate classification, and wavelet and multiscale analyses are all important themes to be covered in detail. Many problems will be introduced at the conference in the context of large-scale astronomical projects including LIGO, AXAF, XTE, Hipparcos, and digitized sky surveys.

Eric D. Feigelson, Professor of Astronomy & Astrophysics, and G. Jogesh Babu, Professor of Statistics, have long collaborated in cross-disciplinary research and services.  Under the auspices of Penn State's Center for Astrostatistics, they run the SCMA conferences, offer summer schools in statistics for astronomers, produce texts and research articles promoting advances in statistical methodology in astronomy.  Feigelson also conducts research in X-ray astronomy and star formation, and Babu is a mathematical statistician with interest in bootstrap methods, nonparametrics and asymptotic theory.