NOTE TO EDITORS:  To arrange an interview with Hughes, please
contact Bernard Carlson at (804) 924-6113.


AUTHORITY ON IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGY TO SPEAK AT U.VA.

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., Oct. 18 -- Thomas P. Hughes, one of
the world's leading authorities on the impact of technology on
society, will address key aspects of this topic in three lectures at
the University of Virginia on Oct. 23, 24 and 25.
	Hughes' talks, in a series titled "Metaphors Shaping Modern
History: Creation, Mechanization and Control," will be held each day
at 4 p.m. in the Dome Room of the Rotunda, "Creation" will be the
topic on the first day, followed by "Mechanization" and then
"Control."  All of the lectures are free and open to the public,
although the room has limited seating.
	Co-sponsors of the lecture series are U.Va.'s School of
Engineering and Applied Science and Department of History. Hughes
earned a bachelor's degree at the engineering school and a doctorate
in the history department.
	Two of Hughes' books "Networks of Power:  Electrification of
Western Society 1880 1930," published in 1983, and "Elmer Sperry:
Inventor and Engineer," in 1971, have each won the Dexter Prize for
outstanding book on the history of technology.  "Sperry" also won
the Texas Institute of Letters Book Award.  He also has written
numerous prize-winning essays, articles and book chapters.
	Hughes is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of
Engineering Sciences and Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences.  In 1985 he was awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Medal of the
Society for the History of Technology.
	Currently the Mellon Professor at the University of
Pennsylvania and a visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, he has served as a member of advisory boards at NASA
and other federal agencies, and as a consultant and presenter of a
BBC/NOVA television documentary, "The Bridge That Spanned the
World." 
###
October 17, 1995