In 2019, however, the MIT Media Lab’s director Joi Ito stepped down after the public learned he’d courted funding from Jeffrey Epstein. After a nearly 14-month search, Dava Newman was named his successor and started the role in July of this year.
Newman is a 28-year veteran of MIT herself, an Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics with over 300 publications to her name, who served as NASA Deputy Administrator from 2015–2017. She has been a principal investigator on four space missions, designed her own space suit, and is currently working with a combination of data visualization and AI to help regenerate the world’s oceans.
In one of her first public interviews since taking the role, Newman energetically outlines her updated vision for the MIT Media Lab—a rare innovation hub that she wants to see tackling tougher problems head on, and getting more involved with opportunities outside of the lab itself.