Donald James Hughes (2.04.1915 — 1960) was an American experimental physicist. He was born in Chicago. He graduated from the University of Chicago (1936), where in 1940 he received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and worked in 1938—43. In 1943—49 he was director of the nuclear physics division of Argonne National Laboratory, and from 1949 he worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
His research was in nuclear physics, cosmic-ray physics, neutron physics, neutron spectrometry and reactor physics. He developed a method of measuring the cross-section of the interaction of neutrons with matter. He was the first to obtain polarised neutrons (1949). He studied cold neutrons. He proposed (1952 — 53) a method for the precise measurement of the neutron-electron interaction, and determined nuclear radii from the scattering of slow neutrons.