Thomas J. Hughes

About

Thomas J. Hughes is a Professor in the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics at the University of Texas at Austin, where he joined in 2002. He holds the John O. Hallquist Chair in Computational Mechanics and the Peter O'Donnell, Jr. Chair in Computational and Applied Mathematics. Dr. Hughes's research interests encompass Computational Mechanics, Isogeometric Analysis, Stabilized and Variational Multiscale Methods, Phase-field Modeling, and Computational medicine, including oncology, glymphatic transport, and cardiovascular biomechanics. He has previously served as a faculty member at UC Berkeley, the California Institute of Technology, and Stanford University, where he was Chairman of the Division of Applied Mechanics and Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Recognized as one of the most widely cited authors in Computational Mechanics, Dr. Hughes has received numerous national and international awards for his research. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, the US National Academy of Engineering, the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and is a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, the Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. He has received honorary doctorates from the universities of Louvain, Pavia, Padua, Trondheim, Northwestern, and A Coruña.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Mathematics
• Physics
• Applied mathematics
• Mathematical optimization
• Medicine
• Biology
• Statistical physics
• Mathematical analysis
• Virology

Selected publications

• Simulating the spread of COVID-19 <i>via</i> a spatially-resolved susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered-deceased (SEIRD) model with heterogeneous diffusion.

  Applied Mathematics Letters · 2021 · 227 citations

  We present an early version of a Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovered-Deceased (SEIRD) mathematical model based on partial differential equations coupled with a heterogeneous diffusion model. The model describes the spatio-temporal spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, and aims to capture dynamics also based on human habits and geographical features. To test the model, we compare the outputs generated by a finite-element solver with measured data over the Italian region of Lombardy, which has been…

  DOI

• Thinner biological tissues induce leaflet flutter in aortic heart valve replacements

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2020 · 97 citations

  Valvular heart disease has recently become an increasing public health concern due to the high prevalence of valve degeneration in aging populations. For patients with severely impacted aortic valves that require replacement, catheter-based bioprosthetic valve deployment offers a minimally invasive treatment option that eliminates many of the risks associated with surgical valve replacement. Although recent percutaneous device advancements have incorporated thinner, more flexible biological tiss…

  DOI

• Diffusion–reaction compartmental models formulated in a continuum mechanics framework: application to COVID-19, mathematical analysis, and numerical study

  Computational Mechanics · 2020 · 94 citations

  , in which the total quantities characterizing a certain system may be decomposed into two (or more) species that are distributed into two (or more) homogeneous units called compartments. We propose herein a formulation of compartmental models based on partial differential equations (PDEs) based on concepts familiar to continuum mechanics, interpreting such models in terms of fundamental equations of balance and compatibility, joined by a constitutive relation. We believe that such an interpreta…

  DOI

• Phase-field fracture modeling for large structures

  Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids · 2022 · 45 citations

  PublisherDOI

• Tensor-decomposition-based A Priori Surrogate (TAPS) modeling for ultra large-scale simulations

  Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering · 2025-06-09 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative Research: Isogeometric Boundary Element Analysis

  NSF · $363k · 2011–2014

• Novel Simulation Technologies for BHV Long-Term Durability

  NIH · $563k · 2016–2020

• Novel Simulation Technologies for BHV Long-Term Durability

  NIH · $492k · 2016–2020

Frequent coauthors

• Alessandro Reali

  University of Pavia

  80 shared

• Yuri Bazilevs

  Brown University

  58 shared

• Thomas E. Yankeelov

  The University of Texas at Austin

  52 shared

• G. D. Reeves

  Los Alamos National Laboratory

  52 shared

• L. Andersson

  Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

  50 shared

• J. S. Murphee

  University of Calgary

  50 shared

• R. E. Erlandsson

  Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory

  50 shared

• J. H. Clemmons

  University of New Hampshire

  50 shared

Labs

• Recent Computational Mechanics GroupPI

  Recent Computational Mechanics Group Awardees (since 2010)

Education

• Ph.D.

  University of California-Berkeley

Awards & honors

• Named Distinguished Lecturer of the Hagler Institute for Adv…
• Honorary doctorate awarded from the National Institute of Ap…
• Ranked No. 2 Best Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Scien…
• Elected Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence A…
• Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering establ…

Similar researchers at University of Texas at Austin

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• Stelios Kyriakidesh-68
• Rui Huangh-60