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Aerospace Engineering,
Computational Engineering and Engineering Mechanics

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Education:
Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley

Research Interests:

  • Computational Mechanics
  • Isogeometric Analysis
  • Stabilized and Variational Multiscale Methods
  • Phase-field Modeling
  • Computational medicine (oncology, glymphatic transport, cardiovascular biomechanics)

Dr. Hughes joined the Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics in 2002. He was previously a faculty member at UC Berkeley, the California Institute of Technology, and Stanford University, where he served as Chairman of the Division of Applied Mechanics and Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Dr. Hughes is one of the most widely cited authors in Computational Mechanics. He 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 a Foreign Member of the Royal Society, the Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere, and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Dr. Hughes has received honorary doctorates from the universities of Louvain, Pavia, Padua, Trondheim, Northwestern, and A Coruña.

 

News

Pilot flying new VR flight simulator

New virtual reality flight simulators give aerospace engineering students hands-on flight experience.

Published by the Cockrell School of Engineering

Varanasi Sai Subhankar with space backgrouond

Sai Subhankar Wins Student Excellence Award for Plasma Research

Varanasi Sai Subhankar, an aerospace engineering Ph.D. student advised by Thomas Underwood, received the Student Excellence Award at the 2025 American Physical Society Gaseous Electronics Conference.

emergency room image

Nanshu Lu is partnering with the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research to advance a next-generation e-tattoo sensor that can noninvasively monitor early signs of internal bleeding. 

Published by Texas Research

John-Paul Clarke

John-Paul Clarke Named Fellow of International Airline Operations Society

John-Paul Clarke is one of three distinguished individuals named a fellow of the Airline Group of the International Federation of Operational Research Societies.

Research

From land and water on Earth to the stars and beyond, our research is not only changing the world and the lives of people who live here – it is transforming the future of air travel and space exploration, creating opportunities for future discoveries outside our world. At UT Aerospace, the sky is not the limit.

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Research Areas

$23.2M

In Research Expenditures

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Graduate Aerospace Engineering Program in the Nation

U.S. News & World Report

#8

Undergraduate Aerospace Engineering Program in the Nation

U.S. News & World Report

Spotlights

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Fall 2025 Newsletter

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Nomination Call: Academy of Distinguished Alumni

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Faculty Openings

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Research Seminars

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