16 Facts About Dava Newman

Dava J Newman was born on 1964 and is an American aerospace engineer.

Dava Newman is the director of the MIT Media Lab and a former deputy administrator of NASA.

Dava Newman has been a faculty member in the department of Aeronautics and Astronautics and MIT's School of Engineering since 1993.

Dava 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.

Dava Newman formerly directed the Technology and Policy Program at MIT and the MIT Portugal Program since 2011.

Dava Newman was a Co-Investigator on the Mental Workload and Performance Experiment that flew on STS-42 to measure astronaut mental workload and fine motor control in microgravity.

Dava Newman developed the MICR0-G space flight experiment to provide a sensor suite and study human adaptation in extreme environments.

Dava Newman was the MIT Principal Investigator on the Gravity Loading Countermeasure Suit, or Skinsuit, which flew the International Space Station as an ESA technology demonstration from 2015 to 2017.

Dava 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, and advanced materials rather than with pressurized gas.

Dava 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 compression technology patents.

In October 2014, Dava Newman was nominated by President Barack Obama as deputy administrator of NASA, but the US Senate returned the nomination to the president in December 2014 when the 113th Congress adjourned without having confirmed her for the position.

Under Senate rules, in order for Dava 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.

Dava Newman's confirmation hearing before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation was held March 25,2015, and the committee unanimously recommended approval by the full Senate.

Dava Newman was confirmed by the Senate on April 27,2015.

Dava Newman resigned the position upon the end of the Obama administration on January 20,2017.

Dava Newman 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.