He then accepted an invitation from M. G. Evans FRS to work in England as an assistant lecturer at the University of Manchester (1950–54) in the department created by Michael Polanyi.

He has held numerous prestigious visiting scientist positions at universities in Australia, the UK, and the US.

[3] A unifying theme of Hush's research is explanation of chemical electron transfer.

The mechanism of these reactions—the simplest of which proceed without making or breaking chemical bonds—remained unknown until the mid-1950s, when several independent theoretical studies showed that it was due to modulation of coupling between electronic and vibrational motions.

According to his Royal Society election citation,[5] Hush's research in the area of homogeneous and heterogeneous electron transfer[6] showed that electron transfer occurring during a collision between a molecule and either another molecule or an electrode surface occurs adiabatically on a continuous potential-energy surface, and that electron transfer can occur by either optical or thermal mechanisms with the corresponding rates being closely connected.