April 17, 2017
Thomas “J.R.” Hughes, a professor of aerospace engineering and engineering mechanics at The University of Texas at Austin and one of the most cited authors in scientific computing, has been selected to receive the 2017 Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) Distinguished Scientist Award.
The annual award is given to a research scientist who has done extraordinary work according to the SURA mission to “strengthen the scientific capabilities of its members and our nation” and consists of a $10,000 honorarium, which will be presented to Hughes on April 19 at the SURA Board of Trustees meeting at Louisiana State University.
“Dr. Hughes is an eminent scientist, bringing great distinction to his field of study and institution. SURA is proud to convey this special honor to him,” said Gordon Gee, President of West Virginia University and Chair of the SURA Council of Presidents, in a SURA press release. “His contributions to the analysis of structural, solid, and fluid systems in the area of computational mechanics – particularly for aerospace – are quite remarkable.”
Established in 1980, SURA is a consortium of over 60 leading research institutions in the southern U.S. and District of Columbia. The nonprofit organization’s mission is to help universities, colleges and other institutions collaborate with government and industry to aid in the knowledge and application in engineering and science disciplines.
Hughes holds the Peter O’Donnell Chair in Computational and Applied Mathematics. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a foreign member of the Royal Society, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, and the Istituto Lombardo Accademia di Scienze e Lettere. Hughes has received honorary doctorates from the following universities: A Coruña, Louvain, Pavia, Padua, Trondheim, and Northwestern.
