Dr. James H. Newman is the Vice President, Provost and Chief Academic Officer (Acting) of the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), where he also serves as Professor, Space Systems. He previously held the position of Chair and Professor, Space Systems Academic Group (SSAG).

In 2006, Newman came to NPS after three years serving NASA in Moscow, Russia. He joined the SSAG as a NASA Visiting Professor and in 2008 he subsequently transferred from NASA to the Department of the Navy to accept a tenure-track professorship at NPS. His teaching has included orbital mechanics and launch systems, payload design, and introduction to programming for space applications. He has performed applied infrastructure research in the use of very small satellites for focused projects of national interest and for motivating hands-on, officer student educational opportunities. This applied research has included launching several very small satellites and satellite deployers and he is currently assisting with a payload on satellites developed by other faculty in the SSAG.

NASA selected Newman into its astronaut program in 1990. Newman's space flight experience included four missions aboard the Space Shuttles Discovery (STS-51), Endeavour (STS-69, STS-88), and Columbia (STS-109). Notably, he logged a bit more than forty-three days in space, including six spacewalks totaling a little longer than forty-three hours and assignment as the robotic arm operator. On the spacewalks, he installed mission critical equipment on the International Space Station and worked on the Hubble Space Telescope. His office assignments included progressively more responsible positions in leadership and management, culminating in his assignment as the Director, NASA's Human Space Flight Program, Russia.

Newman received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics from Dartmouth College in 1978 and a Master of Arts degree and Doctorate in Physics from Rice University in 1982 and 1984, respectively. After graduating from Rice University in 1984, Newman performed post-doctoral research prior to starting at NASA in 1985 as an instructor in Control and Propulsion. He is a member of the Association of Space Explorers, the American Physical Society, Sigma Xi, and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.