Huggins joined the Stanford faculty in 1954. He established Stanford's Department of Materials Science and Engineering in 1959 and its Center for Materials Research program in 1961.[4][2] He became a full professor in 1962.[3]
Huggins also served as Director of Materials Sciences at the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in Washington, D.C. from 1968–1970.[2]
As of October 1991, Huggins became the Chief Scientist of the Energy Storage and Conversion Division at the Center for Solar Energy and Hydrogen Research (Zentrum für Sonnenenergie- und Wasserstoff- Forschung, ZSW) in Ulm, Germany.[8] where he remained until 1995.[3]
He was named Honorary Professor at both the University of Ulm (1994) and the University of Kiel (2000) in Germany.[3]
Huggins is the author, co-author or editor of over 400 publications including Advanced Batteries (2009) and Energy Storage: Fundamentals, Materials and Applications (2010, 1st; 2016, 2nd ed.)[1][3]
He holds at least 13 patents.[3]
While at Stanford, Huggins attempted to recreate the controversial work of Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann on the eventually discredited theory of cold fusion. At one point he reported success.[12] Only weeks later, such claims were rejected by a colleague.[13]
^ abcdefGür, Turgut M. (June 2011). "Solid state ionic tools for catalysis and materials research: In honor of Robert A. Huggins". Solid State Ionics. 192 (1): 645–652. doi:10.1016/j.ssi.2009.12.013.