White House Announces Dava Newman Nomination
President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts (NASA Excerpt)
“Dr. Dava Newman, Nominee for Deputy Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Dr. Dava Newman is a Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineering Systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She first joined the MIT faculty in 1993 and has held a number of different faculty positions since then. Dr. Newman is a Harvard-MIT Health, Sciences and Technology faculty member and became a MacVicar Faculty Fellow in 2000. She is also the Director of the MIT Portugal Program, Director of the Technology and Policy Program, and Co-Director of the Man-Vehicle Laboratory at MIT. From 1992 to 1993, she was an Assistant Professor at the University of Houston. Dr. Newman received a B.S. from the University of Notre Dame and two S.M.s and a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”
Dava Newman nominated for NASA post, MIT
The deputy administrator’s specific duties, Newman says, include NASA’s legislative and intergovernmental affairs; communications; the Mission Support Directorate; and international relationships, including the multinational partnership that manages the International Space Station. In addition, the post oversees educational programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics Helping to spur the interest of young people in space, and in engineering in general, will be “a privilege,” Newman says. “I’d like to change the conversation with kids about what it means to be an engineer” — which she calls “the best job in the world, where you get to solve really challenging and extraordinary problems in the service of humankind.”
Dava Newman – New Deputy Administrator at NASA, 8 October post
How soon do you think the confirmation hearings will take place? will they try to get her approved with the Lame duck Congress or have to wait until january’s new set?
I’d be rather surprised to see any confirmation hearings until January.
At least Frank Wolf will be gone.
The Senate votes on Presidential nominations – not the House.
Another crew member for the Titanic? 😉
Pretty normal activity for career public servants, that’s all; if you think the elected officials run the country, look deeper. It’s people like Dr. Newman and we should be damn happy to have her.
They could appoint the Pope to the NASA staff, but if Congress doesn’t fund the agency properly, what does it matter?
Is is just coincidence that the Deputy Administrator has to be female?