About three years ago, an idea was discussed among some colleagues in the Division of Statistics at the University of California, Davis, as to the possibility of holding an international conference, focusing exclusively on nonparametric curve estimation. The fruition of this idea came about with the enthusiastic support of this project by Luc Devroye of McGill University, Canada, and Peter Robinson of the London School of Economics, UK. The response of colleagues, contacted to ascertain interest in participation in such a conference, was gratifying and made the effort involved worthwhile. Devroye and Robinson, together with this editor and George Metakides of the University of Patras, Greece and of the European Economic Communities, Brussels, formed the International Organizing Committee for a two week long Advanced Study Institute (ASI) sponsored by the Scientific Affairs Division of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The ASI was held on the Greek Island of Spetses between July 29 and August 10, 1990. Nonparametric functional estimation is a central topic in statistics, with applications in numerous substantive fields in mathematics, natural and social sciences, engineering and medicine. While there has been interest in nonparametric functional estimation for many years, this has grown of late, owing to increasing availability of large data sets and the ability to process them by means of improved computing facilities, along with the ability to display the results by means of sophisticated graphical procedures.

Nonparametric Functional Estimation is a compendium of papers, written by experts, in the area of nonparametric functional estimation. This book attempts to be exhaustive in nature and is written both for specialists in the area as well as for students of statistics taking courses at the postgraduate level. The main emphasis throughout the book is on the discussion of several methods of estimation and on the study of their large sample properties. Chapters are devoted to topics on estimation of density and related functions, the application of density estimation to classification problems, and the different facets of estimation of distribution functions. Statisticians and students of statistics and engineering will find the text very useful.

Topics emphasized include nonparametric density estimation as an exploratory device plus the deeper models to which the exploratory analysis points, multi-dimensional data analysis, and analysis of remote sensing data, cancer progression, chaos theory, epidemiological modeling, and parallel based algorithms. New methods discussed are quick nonparametric density estimation based techniques for resampling and simulation based estimation techniques not requiring closed form solutions.

This volume is composed of peer-reviewed papers that have developed from the First Conference of the International Society for Non Parametric Statistics (ISNPS). This inaugural conference took place in Chalkidiki, Greece, June 15-19, 2012. It was organized with the co-sponsorship of the IMS, the ISI and other organizations. M.G. Akritas, S.N. Lahiri and D.N. Politis are the first executive committee members of ISNPS and the editors of this volume. ISNPS has a distinguished Advisory Committee that includes Professors R.Beran, P.Bickel, R. Carroll, D. Cook, P. Hall, R. Johnson, B. Lindsay, E. Parzen, P. Robinson, M. Rosenblatt, G. Roussas, T. SubbaRao and G. Wahba. The Charting Committee of ISNPS consists of more than 50 prominent researchers from all over the world. The chapters in this volume bring forth recent advances and trends in several areas of nonparametric statistics. In this way, the volume facilitates the exchange of research ideas, promotes collaboration among researchers from all over the world and contributes to the further development of the field. The conference program included over 250 talks, including special invited talks, plenary talks and contributed talks on all areas of nonparametric statistics. Out of these talks, some of the most pertinent ones have been refereed and developed into chapters that share both research and developments in the field.

Developed from lecture notes and ready to be used for a course on the graduate level, this concise text aims to introduce the fundamental concepts of nonparametric estimation theory while maintaining the exposition suitable for a first approach in the field.

Modern apparatuses allow us to collect samples of functional data, mainly curves but also images. On the other hand, nonparametric statistics produces useful tools for standard data exploration. This book links these two fields of modern statistics by explaining how functional data can be studied through parameter-free statistical ideas. At the same time it shows how functional data can be studied through parameter-free statistical ideas, and offers an original presentation of new nonparametric statistical methods for functional data analysis.