Statistical models of nuclear level densities

We present calculations of nuclear level densities that are based upon the detailed microphysics of the interacting shell model yet are also computationally tractable. To do this, we combine in a novel fashion several previously disparate ideas from statistical spectroscopy, namely partitioning of the model space into subspaces, analytic calculations of moments up to fourth order directly from the two-body interaction, and Zuker's binomial distribution. We get excellent agreement with full scale interacting shell model calculations. We also calculate ``ab initio'' the level densities for $^{29}$Si and $^{57}$Co and get reasonable agreement with experiment.