Dava J. Newman

professor, Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT

Professor Dava Newman is currently the director of the Technology and Policy Program and a MacVicar Faculty Fellow at MIT. She is professor of Aeronautics and the Astronautics and Engineering Systems Division as well as an affiliate faculty in the Harvard-MIT Health, Sciences and Technology Division. Professor Newman’s research contributes to fundamental knowledge of human performance in extreme environments by interweaving biomechanics, human factors engineering, modeling, and design. In the space environment, she quantifies astronaut motion and studies the subtle mechanisms underlying neuron-musculoskeletal adaptation, which are not easily studied on earth. She is currently developing her fourth spaceflight experiment, the MICRO-G experiment, which will fly on the International Space Station in a few years. Professor Newman is concurrently designing a revolutionary, advanced spacesuit for future exploration missions, the Bio-Suit System, which she targets for 2020. She has been honored with a NASA Manned Flight Awareness Team Award and a NASA Group Achievement Award. She is a recognized AIAA Distinguished Lecturer, and recently received the National Aerospace Educator Award.