Dava Newman

Director, MIT Media Lab

Dr. Dava Newman is the Director of the MIT Media Lab and holds the Apollo Program Professor Chair of Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She is a Harvard–MIT Health, Sciences, and Technology faculty member. She served as NASA Deputy Administrator (2015-17), the first female engineer in this role, and was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal. An avid explorer, her research and teaching expertise include aerospace biomedical engineering, human performance, advanced space suit design, AI/ML for climate, design, leadership development, innovation, and technology and policy. Newman has been principal investigator (PI) on five spaceflight missions flown aboard the Space Shuttle, Russian Mir Space Station and the International Space Station, and is best known for her revolutionary BioSuit™ planetary spacesuit. Her next space mission is to the moon, robotically exploring the lunar South Pole revealing color and stereo images (2025). Recently, she co-founded EarthDNA with partner Guillermo Trotti to accelerate solutions for spaceship Earth’s Ocean, Land, and Air subsystems by curating satellite data to make the world work for 100% of humanity.

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