The "Stats in the Chateau" summer school was held at the CRC chateau on the campus of HEC Paris, Jouy-en-Josas, France, from August 31 to September 4, 2009. This event was organized jointly by faculty members of three French academic institutions ENSAE ParisTech, the Ecole Polytechnique ParisTech, and HEC Paris which cooperate through a scientific foundation devoted to the decision sciences.

The scientific content of the summer school was conveyed in two courses, one by Laurent Cavalier (Universite Aix-Marseille I) on "Ill-posed Inverse Problems," and one by Victor Chernozhukov (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) on "High-dimensional Estimation with Applications to Economics." Ten invited researchers also presented either reviews of the state of the art in the field or of applications, or original research contributions.

This volume contains the lecture notes of the two courses. Original research articles and a survey complement these lecture notes. Applications to economics are discussed in various contributions.

Julian Schnabel directs this drama about an orphaned Palestinian girl growing up in the aftermath of the first Arab-Israeli war. Hind Husseini (Hiam Abbass) sets up an orphanage following the partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 that soon becomes home to almost 2,000 children. Seven-year-old Miral (Freida Pinto) ends up in the orphanage following her mother's death. Brought up there in an atmosphere of peace and stability, she is unaware of the troubles that surround her until she goes to teach at a refugee camp at the age of 17. There, she finds herself torn between the fight for the future of her people and Mama Hind's belief that education is the only possible route to peace.