Introduction

The Centre for the Analysis of Time Series (CATS) was established in 2000 and is based within the Department of Statistics at LSE. The School has a long and distinguished history in time series analysis and as part of its strategic plan has invested heavily in developing a world-class centre of excellence in this area. Recent appointments include Professor Leonard Smith (Director), Professor Qiwei Yao and Professor Henry Wynn (Co-Director). Prof Smith is also Senior Research Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, while Professor Yao is Chair in Statistics at LSE. Professor Howell Tong is Chair of the Centre. 

The Centre for the Analysis of Time Series aims to:                       

• Address the question of data analysis using both physical insight and the latest statistical methods.
  
  
• Focus on non-linear analysis in situation of economic and physical interest, such as weather forecasting.
  
  
• Promote awareness of limitations of non-linear analysis and the danger of blindly transferring well-known physics to simulation modelling.
  
  
• Focus on end-to-end forecasting, taking account of current uncertainty about the state of the system, model inadequacy and finite computational power.

Suggestions for new areas of interest are always welcome. We interpret analysis rather broadly to include estimation of statistics, prediction and the analysis of forecast systems. We are interested in the development of tools to interpret, value and apply probabilistic forecasts.

^