The people behind QEEI

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%. She has published over 40 refereed manuscripts in journals and conference proceedings.

Dr. Hodges earned B.S. degrees in both Physics and Electrical Engineering through a dual-degree program between Dillard University and Columbia University, an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida. In 2022 she was appointed chair of FIU's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, the first Black professor to serve as a department chair in the College of Engineering and Computing. Her research network spans U.S. Department of Energy laboratories, including Brookhaven, Idaho National Laboratory, the Kansas City National Security Campus (Honeywell FM&T), and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.