Hughes began his career as a mechanical design engineer at Grumman Aerospace, subsequently joining General Dynamics as a research and development engineer. After receiving his Ph.D. from University of California, Berkeley, he joined the Berkeley faculty, eventually moving to California Institute of Technology. He then moved to Stanford University before joining The University of Texas at Austin. At Stanford, he served as Chairman of the Division of Applied Mechanics, Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, and Chairman of the Division of Mechanics and Computation, and occupied the Mary and Gordon Crary Chair of Engineering. While at Stanford he served as a member of International Advisory Committee, ICTACEM. Hughes has developed computational methods for understanding solid, structural and fluid mechanics. He recently has applied this expertise to develop customized models of blood flow for patients using their individual imaging records such as CT scans and MRIs.
Books
Thomas J. R. Hughes and Jerrold E. Marsden, A Short Course in Fluid Mechanics, Mathematics lecture series, v. 6, Boston: Publish or Perish, 1976.
Thomas J. R. Hughes, D. Gartling, Robert L. Spilker, Applied Mechanics Division, Vol. 44: New Concepts in Finite Element Analysis, ASME, 1981.
Thomas J. R. Hughes, A. Pifko, A. Jay, Applied Mechanics Division, Vol. 48: Nonlinear Finite Element Analysis of Plates and Shells, ASME, 1981.
Thomas J. R. Hughes, Stress-point algorithm for a pressure-sensitive multiple-yield-surface plasticity theory, Unknown Binding, Available from National Technical Information Service, 1982.
Computational methods for transient analysis, edited by Ted Belytschko and Thomas J.R. Hughes, Computational methods in mechanics, Volume 1: Mechanics and mathematical methods, New York: Elsevier Science Pub. Co., 1983.
Thomas J. R. Hughes and Englewood Cliffs, The finite element method: linear static and dynamic finite element analysis, NJ: Prentice-Hall,, 1985.
Thomas J. R. Hughes, Ernest Hinton. Finite Element Methods for Plate and Shell Structures, Volume 1: Element Technology, Pineridge Press Ltd, 1986.
Thomas J. R. Hughes, Ernest Hinton. Finite Element Methods for Plate and Shell Structures, Volume 2: Formulation and Algorithms, Pineridge Press Ltd, 1986.
Jerrold E. Marsden and Thomas J. R. Hughes, Mathematical Foundations of Elasticity, Dover Publications, 1994.
J.C. Simo and T.J.R. Hughes, Interdisciplinary applied mathematics, Volume 7: Computational inelasticity, New York: Springer, 1998.
Thomas J. R. Hughes, , Dover Publications, 2000.
Erwin Stein, René de Borst, Thomas J.R. Hughes, Encyclopedia of Computational Mechanics, Volume 1: Fundamentals, Wiley, 2004.
Erwin Stein, René de Borst, Thomas J.R. Hughes, Encyclopedia of Computational Mechanics, Volume 2: Solids and Structures, Wiley, 2004.
Erwin Stein, René de Borst, Thomas J.R. Hughes, Encyclopedia of Computational Mechanics, Volume 3: Fluids, Wiley, 2004.
J. Austin Cottrell, Thomas J. R. Hughes, Yuri Bazilevs, Isogeometric Analysis: Toward Integration of CAD and FEA, Wiley, 2009.
Awards and honors
Hughes has received several awards, including the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Research Prize from ASCE, the Melville Medal from ASME, the Computational Mechanics Award from the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, the von Neumann Medal from USACM, the Gauss-Newton Medal from IACM, and the Worcester Reed Warner Medal from ASME. He is also a recipient of Timoshenko Medal in 2007.
On June 21, 2013, Professor T.J.R. Hughes has named Doctor Honoris Causa from Escuela Técnica Superior Engenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, at University of A Coruña - Spain, into the ambit of Civil Engineering for his contributions in computational mechanics.
