Presseportal für Hochbegabung Dava Newman started her official duties as NASA’s new deputy
administrator on Monday at the agency’s headquarters in Washington.
Newman was nominated in January by President Obama, confirmed by
the Senate in April and sworn in on Friday, May 15. The deputy administrator
position had been vacant since the departure of Lori Garver in September 2013.
“I have known and admired Dava for several decades,” said NASA
Administrator Charles Bolden. “Her talents and skills as an educator and
technological innovator will bring a new energy to our NASA leadership team,
and I’m ecstatic to have her on board.”
Along with Bolden, Newman is responsible to the agency
administrator for providing overall leadership, planning, and policy direction
for NASA. Newman will perform the duties and exercises the powers delegated by
the administrator, assists the administrator in making final agency decisions,
and acts for the administrator in his absence by performing all necessary
functions to govern NASA operations and exercises the powers vested in the
agency by law. Newman also is responsible for articulating the agency's vision
and representing NASA to the Executive Office of the President, Congress, heads
of federal and other appropriate government agencies, international organizations,
and external organizations and communities.
“I’m very excited to be at NASA,” said Newman. “I’m looking
forward to being a part of the agency’s work to expand humanity’s reach into
space, advance our journey to Mars and strengthen America’s leadership here at
home.”
Prior to her tenure with NASA, Newman was the Apollo Program
Professor of Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in
Cambridge. Her expertise is in multidisciplinary research that encompasses
aerospace biomedical engineering.,
Newman's research studies were carried out through space flight
experiments, ground-based simulations, and mathematical modeling. Her latest
research efforts included: advanced space suit design, dynamics and control of
astronaut motion, mission analysis, and engineering systems design and policy
analysis. She also had ongoing efforts in assistive technologies to augment
human locomotion here on Earth.
Newman is the author of Interactive Aerospace Engineering and
Design, an introductory engineering textbook published by McGraw-Hill, Inc. in
2002. She also has published more than 250 papers in journals and refereed
conferences.
As a student at MIT, Newman earned her Ph.D. in aerospace
biomedical engineering in 1992 and Master of Science degrees in aerospace
engineering and technology and policy in 1989. She earned her Bachelor of
Science degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Notre Dame in
1986.
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