The Honorable Dr. Dava Newman is the Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Harvard–MIT Health, Sciences, and Technology faculty member. She is the former director of the MIT Media Lab and the MIT Technology and Policy Program. She served as NASA Deputy Administrator (2015-17), the first female engineer in this role, and was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. Newman’s research expertise is in multidisciplinary aerospace biomedical engineering investigating human performance across the spectrum of gravity.

Newman is a leader in advanced space suit design, dynamics and control of astronaut motion, leadership development, innovation and space policy. Newman was the PI on 6 experiments flown on the Space Shuttle, MIR, and ISS spaceflight missions STS-42, STS-62, MIR (1996-1998), ISS (2015, 2017, 2023) to measure astronaut mental workload and fine motor control, quantify astronaut loads and movement control, and demonstrate advanced suit technology for astronaut exercise and health. She is best known for her second skin EVA BioSuit™ spacesuit inventions for planetary exploration, which are now being applied to “soft suits/exoskeletons” to study and enhance locomotion on Earth.

Her Earth systems research implements satellite data to accelerate solutions for the dual challenge of energy and climate using machine learning with physics informed neural networks, immersive visualizations, and story-telling. She is a co-founder of EarthDNA. Newman is the author of Interactive Aerospace Engineering and Design and has published more than 350 papers in journals and refereed conferences.

She has circumnavigated the world sailing over 40,000 nm. Select honors include: Hon. Doctorates from Dartmouth, the Royal College of Art, and University of Minho, Seneca’s 100 Women, Society of Women’s 35 World’s Most Influential Women Engineers, Robert Fletcher Award, Lowell Thomas Award, AIAA Fellow, AIAA Jeffries Aerospace Medicine and Life Sciences Research Award, and Women in Aerospace Leadership Award. Newman received her PhD in aerospace biomedical engineering and Masters degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics and Technology and Policy from MIT and a BS in aerospace engineering from the University of Notre Dame. Newman is a member of the Aerospace Corporation Board of Trustees, the SETI Institute Board of Directors, and co-chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Space Technologies.