About The Exley
Many UT Dallas undergraduate students are engaged in research activities with the University’s nationally-recognized faculty and talented graduate and post-doctoral students. Other undergraduates enroll in courses or participate in programs that provide them a unique experience or opportunity to demonstrate their creative talents. The importance of providing a medium for UT Dallas students to publish analytical articles related to research activities and creative works led to the creation of UT Dallas’ undergraduate research journal, The Exley.
The Exley provides undergraduate students from every discipline an opportunity to publish analytical or creative work that illustrates their creative ability or research skills. The works published in The Exley demonstrate the valuable and enriching experience UT Dallas provides students and the impact undergraduate researchers have on their projects. The journal is managed by the Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) and is printed in collaboration with staff from the Office of Research and Development and the Office of Communications, administrators from each school, faculty and students. The journal is named after Elizabeth Exley Hodge who has generously chosen to support this opportunity for undergraduates.
The Exley Family
Elizabeth Exley Hodge
Elizabeth (Libby) Exley Hodge was born in a small farming community in Worcester County, Maryland, in 1920. She is one of eleven children of Lola Marie Watson and John O. Exley, who had distinguished himself with gold medals in rowing at the 1900 and 1904 Olympic Games. After high school, Libby lived nine years in Philadelphia, working for an insurance company. When World War II was declared, she volunteered in a program with the U.S. Air Corps, where she met her husband-to-be, Noble H. Hodge, from Fannin County, Texas. They were married in 1942. Following his service in England to war’s end, they moved in 1945 to Dallas, Texas, where she still resides.
In 1967 Libby joined the administrative offices of the Southwest Center for Advanced Studies. When the Center became UTD in 1969, she transferred to the Biology Department in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics where she assisted faculty members preparing research grant applications. After a number of years in grants management in Natural Sciences and Mathematics and later in the Office of Sponsored Projects, she retired in 1986.
Libby has been an avid gardener for many years, claims to have her personal arboretum and even has an orchid hybrid which bears her name. She enjoys cooking and sharing, has volunteered weekly for the last 23 years at Baylor Medical Center in Garland, and continues to assist friends as needed. She is a member of St. John’s Episcopal Church near her home.
The Exley Heritage
Libby’s brother, John, searched records in Manchester and Halifax, England in 1971, which revealed the surname Exley was believed first to be Ecclesley, dating as early as 1245, meaning “Church Fields.” The area where her great, great grandfather was born now exists as Exley Hall and nearby villages, Yorkshire, England. Several members of the current Exley family have visited there.
Contact Us
For questions regarding The Exley, please email exley@utdallas.edu or call 972-883-6706.