Senior Lecturer, Engineering Systems
Principal Research Scientist, SEAri and LAI

Donna H. Rhodes holds a Ph.D. in Systems Science from the T.J. Watson School of Engineering at SUNY Binghamton. Prior to joining MIT, Dr. Rhodes had 20 years of experience in the aerospace, defense systems, systems integration, and commercial product industries. She previously held senior level management positions at IBM Federal Systems, Lockheed Martin, and Lucent Technologies in the areas of systems engineering and enterprise transformation.

Dr. Rhodes has been very involved in the evolution of the systems engineering field, as well as the development of several university graduate programs. She serves on a number of corporate, university, and government boards focused on the advancement of the systems practice and education, as well as on study panels for issues of national and international importance. Dr. Rhodes is a Past President and Fellow of the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), and is a recipient of the INCOSE Founders Award and several INCOSE Distinguished Service Awards. She has published numerous papers and research reports in the field of systems, and has co-authored industry and corporate engineering policies, standards, and technical reports. She has been an invited speaker and panelist for numerous international and national events in the field of systems.

Dr. Rhodes has research interests and advises ongoing research projects in the following areas: advanced systems engineering methods; systems engineering leading indicators; defense and commercial systems practices and case studies; value based decision analysis; systems principles and practices applied to enterprises; managing for complexity and uncertainty; systems-of-systems engineering; and strategies for high performing enterprises in the engineering systems context.

Updated May 2008

News and announcements:

SEAri Scholars Receive Best Paper Awards at INCOSE International Symposium 2008 (July 9,2008)

ESD Researchers Ross and Rhodes Receive IEEE Systems Best Paper Award (April 13, 2008)

Draper awards research contract to Dr. Donna Rhodes (April 13, 2007)

MIT predicts performance of complex systems (February 2, 2007)

Rhodes, Frey Honored at INCOSE Symposium ESD plays major role in event (July 22, 2005)

MIT/MITRE Research Collaboration Workshops (March 13, 2005)

ESD Teaching Staff, Ph.D. Candidates Speak at INCOSE/ICSE Conference (October 21, 2004)

ESD Participates in Advancing Systems Engineering Conference (September 10, 2004)