About
Dr. Joseph Hughes received his PhD and MS degrees from the University of Iowa in Civil and Environmental Engineering and a B.A. from Cornell College in Chemistry. He currently holds the position of University Distinguished Professor of Engineering at Drexel University. He served as Dean of Engineering at Drexel from 2012 to 2017 and Director of the A.J. Drexel Institute for Energy and Environment from 2014 to 2019. Prior to his appointment at Drexel University, he served at Georgia Tech as the Karen and John Huff School Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering, the Howard T. Tellepsen Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Professor of Material Science and Engineering. He served at Rice University at all academic ranks, including the George R Brown Chair of Engineering and Department Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering. He is a registered professional engineer and is a Diplomat, by Eminence, of the American Academy of Environmental Engineering and Science, and Fellow of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors.
Dr. Hughes has received awards for his teaching and research including, the Georgia Engineer of the Year in education; the McKee Medal from the Water Environment Federation; and the Walter P. Huber Research Prize from the American Society of Civil Engineers. He has been active in the National Academy of Engineering's Frontiers of Engineering program and the Grand Challenge Scholars program. He is served until March of 2018 as the Chair of the Science Advisory Board of the DOD/DOE/EPA research program SERDP, has served in advisory roles to the EPA and the NRC, and Co-Chairs the REMTEC National Conference .
He has published extensively in journals, book chapters, edited books, peer reviewed conference proceedings, and is invited to address audiences in issues ranging from his research specialties to global issues of sustainability, energy, environment, and most recently the new field of Peace Engineering.