Dava J. Newman
Newman in October 2023

13th Deputy administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
In office May 15, 2015 – January 20, 2017
President	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Lori Garver
Succeeded by	James Morhard

Personal details
Born	1964 (age 60–61) Helena, Montana
Spouse	Guillermo Trotti
Alma mater	University of Notre Dame (BS, 1986) Massachusetts Institute of Technology (dual SM, 1989; PhD, 1992)

Dava J. Newman (born 1964) is an American aerospace engineer. She is the director of the MIT Media Lab^[1]^[2] and a former deputy administrator of NASA.^[3] Newman is the Apollo Program Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has been a faculty member in the department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and MIT's School of Engineering since 1993.

Newman earned her PhD in aerospace biomedical engineering, and Master of Science degrees in aerospace engineering and technology and policy all from MIT, and her Bachelor of Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Notre Dame. She is a member of the faculty at the Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology and a MacVicar Faculty Fellow. She formerly directed the Technology and Policy Program at MIT (2003–2015) and the MIT Portugal Program since 2011.

Research

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Newman's research expertise is in aerospace biomedical engineering, investigating human performance in varying gravity environments. Newman was the principal investigator on four spaceflight missions.^[4] The Space Shuttle Dynamic Load Sensors (DLS) experiment measured astronaut-induced disturbances of the microgravity environment^{[clarification needed]} on mission STS-62. The Enhanced Dynamic Load Sensors experiment flew on board the Mir Space Station from 1996–1998. Newman was a Co-Investigator on the Mental Workload and Performance Experiment (MWPE) that flew on STS-42 to measure astronaut mental workload and fine motor control in microgravity.^[5]^[6] She also developed the MICR0-G space flight experiment to provide a sensor suite and study human adaptation in extreme environments.^[7] She was the MIT Principal Investigator on the Gravity Loading Countermeasure Suit, or Skinsuit,^[8] which flew the International Space Station as an ESA technology demonstration from 2015 to 2017.^[9]

Newman has promoted the development of space activity suits, namely the Bio-Suit, which provides pressure through compression directly on the skin via the suit's textile weave, patterning,^[10]^[11] and advanced materials^[12] rather than with pressurized gas. The suit is designed to help astronauts move around more easily than gas-filled suits allow.^[13]^[14]^[15] These spacesuit technologies are now^[when?] being applied to "soft suits" to study and enhance locomotion on Earth. Newman is the author of Interactive Aerospace Engineering and Design, an introductory engineering textbook, has published more than 300 papers in journals and refereed conferences, and holds numerous^[16] compression technology patents.

NASA deputy administratorship

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In October 2014, Newman was nominated by President Barack Obama as deputy administrator of NASA,^[17] but the U.S. Senate returned the nomination to the president in December 2014 when the 113th Congress adjourned without having confirmed her for the position.^[18] Under Senate rules, in order for Newman to be confirmed, Obama needed to re-nominate her to the Senate of the 114th Congress, and he did so on January 8, 2015.^[19]^[20] Her confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation was held March 25, 2015,^[21] and the committee unanimously recommended approval by the full Senate.^[22] She was confirmed by the Senate on April 27, 2015.^[23] She resigned the position upon the end of the Obama administration on January 20, 2017.^[24]

Honors

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This section may contain excessive or irrelevant examples. Please help improve the article by adding descriptive text and removing less pertinent examples. (October 2017)

Select honors include named among World's Most Influential Women Engineers (2021),^[25] Lowell Thomas Award (Explorer's Club (2018), the NASA Distinguished Service Medal (2017), Women in Aerospace Leadership Award (2017), and the Aerospace Medical Association's Henry L. Taylor Award for Outstanding Accomplishment in Aerospace Human Factors (2017). Her BioSuit spacesuit system has been exhibited at the Venice Biennial (2015), the American Museum of Natural History (2012), the Victoria and Albert and Museum, London (2012), the Paris City Museum of Science and Industry (2010), the London Museum of Science and Industry (2009), and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (2008). She was awarded Best Invention of 2007 by Time magazine, named in 100 Extraordinary Women Engineers in 2004, and received the Women in Aerospace National Aerospace Educator Award (2001).

Newman is a former housemaster of MIT's Baker House.^[26]^[27]

Partial bibliography

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References

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^ "Dava Newman named director of MIT Media Lab". 22 December 2020.
^ media.mit.edu
^ Sharkey, Jim (May 19, 2015). "Dava Newman Starts Work as NASA's Deputy Administrator". Spaceflight Insider. Retrieved 19 May 2015.Archived 2023-11-05 at the Wayback Machine
^ "Dava Newman". Ann and H.J. Smead Aerospace Engineering Sciences. 2017-11-06. Archived from the original on 2021-04-14. Retrieved 2018-09-30.
^ "Experiment Information: Mental Workload and Performance Experiment (15-IML-1)". NASA: Life Sciences Data Archive. Archived from the original on 2019-10-08. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
^ Newman, D. J.; Lathan, C. E. (1999). "Memory processes and motor control in extreme environments". IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics - Part C: Applications and Reviews. 29 (3): 387–394. doi:10.1109/5326.777074. ISSN 1094-6977. PMID 11542391.
^ Rojo, Sara, ed. (2019-04-23). "Dava Newman". NASA. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
^ "US Patent for Gravity-loading body suit Patent (Patent # 8,769,712 issued July 8, 2014) - Justia Patents Search".
^ "Dava Newman". MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society. Retrieved 2019-10-08.
^ "US Patent for Digital image correlation for measuring skin strain and deformation Patent (Patent # 10,555,697 issued February 11, 2020) - Justia Patents Search".
^ "US Patent for System and method for measuring skin movement and strain and related techniques Patent (Patent # 10,028,697 issued July 24, 2018) - Justia Patents Search".
^ "US Patent for Wearable, self-locking shape memory alloy (SMA) actuator cartridge Patent (Patent # 10,828,221 issued November 10, 2020) - Justia Patents Search".
^ W., William (2 September 2012). "MIT Professor Has Created a Safer, Skin Tight Space Suit That Will Make It Easier to Work on Mars". Space Industry News. Archived from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
^ Malik, Tariq (18 July 2007). "MIT Develops Sleeker, Slimmed-Down Spacesuit". Fox News. Archived from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
^ Bettex, Morgan (13 October 2010). "Safeguarding astronauts' hands". R&D Daily. Archived from the original on 2012-03-09. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
^ "Dava J. Newman Inventions, Patents and Patent Applications - Justia Patents Search". patents.justia.com. Retrieved 2018-09-30.
^ Chandler, David L. (17 October 2014). "Dava Newman nominated for NASA post" (Press release). MIT News. Retrieved 26 March 2015.
^ Presidential nomination no. 2091, "Dava J. Newman, of Massachusetts, to be Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, vice Lori Garver, resigned", 113th Congress, November 12, 2014. Accessed March 26, 2015.
^ Earnest, Josh (January 8, 2015). "Presidential Nominations Sent to the Senate". whitehouse.gov. Office of the Press Secretary. Retrieved March 26, 2015 – via National Archives.
^ Presidential nomination no. 43, Dava J. Newman, of Massachusetts, to be Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, vice Lori Garver, resigned, 114th Congress, January 8, 2015. Accessed March 26, 2015.
^ "Senate Reviews Dava Newman's Nomination to be NASA Deputy Administrator". Space Ref. spaceref.com. Retrieved March 26, 2015.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ Deedy, Alexander (March 26, 2015). "Helena native Dava Newman one step closer to high-ranking NASA position". Independent Record (Helena, Montana). Retrieved March 26, 2015.
^ "Dava Newman confirmed as NASA deputy administrator". 28 April 2015. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
^ "Former Deputy Administrator Dava Newman". NASA. 2015-05-18. Archived from the original on 2019-01-11. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
^ "Meet the World's Most Influential Women Engineers". Forbes.
^ "Housemasters". About Baker House. MIT. 13 February 2010. Archived from the original on 21 September 2015. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
^ "Three undergraduate communities to welcome new housemasters this fall". 9 July 2015. Retrieved 2015-09-16.

External links

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Brief bio page at MIT website
Dava Newman Playlist Appearance on WMBR's Dinnertime Sampler Archived 2011-05-04 at the Wayback Machine radio show February 18, 2004
MIT Portugal Program
BIF Summit talk by Dava Newman^[usurped]
NASA Biography Archived 2021-03-09 at the Wayback Machine
Appearances on C-SPAN

v t e Administrators and deputy administrators of NASA
Administrators	T. Keith Glennan James E. Webb Thomas O. Paine James C. Fletcher Robert A. Frosch James M. Beggs James C. Fletcher Richard H. Truly Daniel Goldin Sean O'Keefe Michael D. Griffin Charles Bolden Jim Bridenstine Bill Nelson
Acting administrators	Hugh Dryden Thomas Paine George Low Alan M. Lovelace William Robert Graham Dale D. Myers Richard Truly Daniel Mulville Frederick D. Gregory Christopher Scolese Robert M. Lightfoot Jr. Steve Jurczyk Janet Petro
Deputy administrators	Hugh Dryden Robert Seamans Thomas Paine George Low Alan Lovelace Hans Mark William Graham Dale Myers James R. Thompson Jr. Frederick Gregory Shana Dale Lori Garver Dava Newman James Morhard Pamela Melroy
Acting deputy administrators	Aaron Cohen John R. Dailey Daniel Mulville Lesa Roe

Dava Newman

Dava Newman