Presentation
SIGGRAPH 2024 Keynote Speaker: Dava Newman, Humanity Becoming Interplanetary: Exploring Space for Earth and ACM SIGGRAPH Award Presentations
DescriptionDr. Dava Newman’s keynote presentation will cover the theme of “Humanity Becoming Interplanetary: Exploring Space for Earth”. Our amazing Webb Space Telescope discoveries to recent space science missions to Pluto and Jupiter, the discovery of thousands of exoplanets, and orbital missions to monitor Spaceship Earth provide a cosmic perspective. Humanity will become interplanetary and find life elsewhere; however, Mars is not “Plan B”. Spaceship Earth, our pale blue dot, is the most magnificent planet for humanity to thrive. Earth is speaking to us — are we listening? A visual, interactive Earth Mission Control is revealed that will help take actions to regenerate Earth’s oceans, land, and atmosphere subsystems. The “overview effect” from space lets us appreciate Earth’s interconnected systems through supercomputer data visualizations and hyper-local narratives of natural disasters with the goal to accelerate collective actions for a healthier future between humanity and our home planet.
Dr. Dava Newman is the director of the MIT Media Lab, holds the Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics chair at MIT, and is a Harvard–MIT Health Sciences and Technology faculty member. She served as NASA Deputy Administrator (2015–2017). Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate unanimously in April 2015, Dr. Newman was the third woman and first female engineer and scientist to serve in this role. During her tenure, she made significant impact on NASA’s human exploration, specifically developing and articulating the Human Journey to Mars plan, highlighting scientific missions, advocating for transformative aeronautics capabilities, developing and implementing a strategic innovation framework, and advocating for diversity and inclusion for NASA and the nation’s STEM initiatives. Dr. Newman’s research expertise is in aerospace biomedical engineering investigating human performance across the spectrum of gravity and AI/ML for the dual challenge of energy and climate. She is a leader in advanced space suit design, astronaut performance, climate modeling and visualization, leadership development, innovation, and space policy. Dr. Newman was the principal investigator on five spaceflight missions. Her keynote will cover the theme of “Humanity Becoming Interplanetary: Exploring Space for Earth” and presents advanced space and climate computer graphics.
Dr. Dava Newman is the director of the MIT Media Lab, holds the Apollo Program Professor of Astronautics chair at MIT, and is a Harvard–MIT Health Sciences and Technology faculty member. She served as NASA Deputy Administrator (2015–2017). Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate unanimously in April 2015, Dr. Newman was the third woman and first female engineer and scientist to serve in this role. During her tenure, she made significant impact on NASA’s human exploration, specifically developing and articulating the Human Journey to Mars plan, highlighting scientific missions, advocating for transformative aeronautics capabilities, developing and implementing a strategic innovation framework, and advocating for diversity and inclusion for NASA and the nation’s STEM initiatives. Dr. Newman’s research expertise is in aerospace biomedical engineering investigating human performance across the spectrum of gravity and AI/ML for the dual challenge of energy and climate. She is a leader in advanced space suit design, astronaut performance, climate modeling and visualization, leadership development, innovation, and space policy. Dr. Newman was the principal investigator on five spaceflight missions. Her keynote will cover the theme of “Humanity Becoming Interplanetary: Exploring Space for Earth” and presents advanced space and climate computer graphics.

Event Type
Keynote Speaker
TimeTuesday, 30 July 20249:00am - 10:30am MDT
LocationBluebird Ballroom
Livestreamed
Recorded
Full Conference
Full Conference Supporter
Virtual Access
Experience
Exhibits Only
Exhibitor Full Conference
Exhibitor Experience
Tuesday