Neil Kensington Adam

Neil Kensington Adam
Adam in June 1935.
Born	(1891-11-05)5 November 1891 Cambridge, England
Died	19 July 1973(1973-07-19) (aged 81) Southampton, England
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
Awards	Fellow of the Royal Society[1]
Scientific career
Institutions	University of Sheffield University College London University of Southampton University of Cambridge

Neil Kensington Adam FRS, FRIC (5 November 1891 – 19 July 1973) was a British chemist.[1]

Education

Adam was born in Cambridge, the first of three children of James Adam (1860–1907), a Classics don,[2] and his classicist wife Adela Marion (née Kensington) (1866–1944).[1] His sister Barbara was a noted sociologist and criminologist, while his brother Captain Arthur Innes Adam was killed in France on 16 September 1916.[3] His maternal uncle was Sir Alfred Kensington, a judge in the Chief Court of the Punjab.

Adam was educated at Winchester College, and then studied chemistry at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he later became a fellow (1915–1923).[4] He graduated BA in 1913, received his MA in 1919, and Sc.D in 1928.[1]

Career

During the First World War, he served at the Royal Naval Air Service airship station at Kingsnorth, Kent, working on problems associated with rubber-proofing fabric for airships, and other chemical problems.[1]

Adam was Sorby Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield from 1921 to 1929,[4] then a Research Associate (1930–1936) and Lecturer (1936–1937) at University College London.[5] He was Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southampton from 1937 until 1957.[4]

Personal life

Adam was married to Winifred Wright;[1] they were active Christian Scientists.[6] Adam died, aged 81, in Southampton.[1]

Publications

• Adam, N. K. (1930). The Physics and Chemistry of Surfaces. London: Oxford University Press.
• Adam, N. K. (1956). Physical Chemistry. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

References

1. Carrington, A.; Hills, G. J.; Webb, K. R. (1974). "Neil Kensington Adam 1891–1973". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. 20: 1–26. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1974.0001. JSTOR 769631.
2. Stray, Christopher, ed. (2005). The Owl of Minerva: the Cambridge praelections of 1906: reassessments of Richard Jebb, James Adam, Walter Headlam, Henry Jackson, William Ridgeway and Arthur Verrall. Cambridge Philological Society. ISBN 978-0-906014-27-1.
3. "Casualty Details: Arthur Innes Adam". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
4. "Neil K. Adam papers, 1925–1970". Horizon Information Portal. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
5. "Neil Kensington Adam (1891–1973)". University College London. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
6. Morris, Peter. "Chemist's Biographies". Queen Mary University of London. Retrieved 27 March 2017.

External links

• "Neil Kensington Adam (1891–1973), Professor of Chemistry". National Portrait Gallery. Retrieved 27 March 2017.