Thomas Hughes is Mellon Professor Emeritus of the History of Science at the University of Pennsylvania and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has served as the Torsten Althin Professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

His most recent books include RESCUING PROMETHEUS (Vintage, 2000); AMERICAN GENESIS (Penguin 1990), a Pulitzer Prize finalist; and LEWIS MUMFORD: PUBLIC INTELLECTUAL (Oxford University Press 1990), which he edited with Agatha Hughes. He is a member of the American Philosophical Society, U.S. National Academy of Engineering, Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a recipient of the Leonardo da Vinci Medal of the Society for the History of Technology. The Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and Northwestern University awarded him honorary degrees.