The people behind QEEI

Dr. Deidra R. Hodges is an accomplished electrical engineering scholar specializing in perovskite photovoltaics, radiation detection, nuclear engineering education, semiconductor materials, and advanced optoelectronic devices. She has more than three decades of experience spanning academia, national laboratories, aerospace engineering, and federal service.

At Florida International University (FIU), Dr. Hodges served as Chair of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering (2022–2026), leading the department through a period of historic growth, modernization, and national recognition. Under her leadership, FIU ECE achieved:

• Record enrollment and retention
• Top-50 national ranking in multiple surveys
• Accreditation of Florida's first fully online ABET-accredited B.S. in EE and CpE
• More than $12M in annual research awards
• Major curriculum modernization in AI, nuclear engineering, robotics, RF systems, and applied laboratories

Her research has been funded by NSF, DOE, NREL, ARO, the Sloan Foundation, and multiple national laboratories. She has authored more than 100 publications, served as an NSF and DOE reviewer, and holds leadership roles in ECEDHA, IAL, and major materials science conferences.

Dr. Deidra R. Hodges is an exceptional leader in photovoltaics (PV) and solar-energy research, with extensive experience in PV devices and X- and gamma-ray radiation detectors for national security. Her work advances renewable energy, sustainability, nuclear materials, and extreme photon sensing. Her contributions include supporting the development of the pixelated cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) gamma detector at Brookhaven National Laboratory and highly efficient thin-film mixed perovskite-halide photovoltaics, achieving perovskite solar-cell power-conversion efficiencies greater than 21%.