Former NASA deputy administrator, astronautics researcher and inventor of the BioSuit Dava Newman will be the new director of MIT Media Lab.
Newman will take up the role as MIT professor of aeronautics and astronautics on 1 July 2021.
"Leading the legendary Media Lab is a dream for me," said Newman.
"I can't wait to help write the next chapter of this uniquely creative, impactful, compassionate community."
Newman worked for NASA during the Obama administration and her research has focused on supporting the human body in space to help make interplanetary exploration a reality.
She is the designer of the BioSuit, a flexible skintight spacesuit for astronauts to wear on Mars.
Created in collaboration with NASA and MIT, the BioSuit was designed as a practical alternative to traditional rigid gas-filled pressure-controlled suits called extravehicular mobility units.
The stretchy skintight suit would be reinforced with an exoskeleton formed by a complex pattern of 3D lines. The goal of the BioSuit is to create something that could be put on by an astronaut in under ten minutes – saving precious time and money during expensive space flights.
Newman will bring this experience to MIT Media Lab, an interdisciplinary research organisation that brings together experts from a wide range of arts and science subjects.
"The magic of the Media Lab, which I hope to help build on, is to provide a trusted, open-minded, stimulating space where each person can contribute extraordinary expertise while being stretched beyond their comfort zone to collectively imagine a better, bolder future," she said.
The previous director of the MIT Media Lab Joichi Ito resigned in September 2019 after allegations that he took elaborate steps to hide donations from the convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology launched an investigation into the claims after a New York Times investigation found the Media Lab had allegedly received around $800,000 in donations from Epstein, who died in jail awaiting child sex trafficking charges in August 2019.
Designer Neri Oxman subsequently apologised to her students at MIT Media Lab for accepting $125,000 from Epstein for her Mediated Matter Group in 2015.
Images courtesy of MIT.
BioSuit project credits:
Inventor, science and engineering: Professor Dava Newman, MIT
Design: Guillermo Trotti, A.I.A., Trotti and Associates (Cambridge, MA)
Fabrication: Dainese (Vicenza, Italy)
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