personnel profile

Research Statement

Professor Adams served a tour in the Air Force, and held short-term jobs in design and development in industry before receiving his Ph.D. After receiving the degree he was employed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California where he was involved in the design of the first spacecraft to explore the Moon, Venus and Mars. He joined the Stanford faculty in 1966. The courses he has taught at Stanford range from mechanical and product design through courses having to do with the nature of technology.

He is particularly interested in issues having to do with the management of creativity and change in technology-based organizations, with the design process and product design, and with the emotional aspects of technology. He has consulted and conducted seminars on the topics of creativity, innovation, general problem-solving, organizational change, management of R&D, planning, and design for over 100 commercial clients, ranging from large to small and technical to financial. He has also been a consultant and lecturer to a large number of government, educational, and professional groups and been a faculty member in many executive programs at Stanford.

Adams has held many administrative posts at Stanford including Director of the Design Divison, Chairman of the Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management and the program in Science, Technology, and Society, Chairman of the Faculty Advisory Board, Associate Dean for Special Projects and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs of the School of Engineering. He has served as technical director and board member of Mast Immunosystems, president and board member of the Technology Center of Silicon Valley, a member of the California Governor's Panel on Toxic Wastes and a Sigma Xi Lecturer.

Degree	Discipline	Year	School
PhD	Mechanical Engineering	1961	Stanford

Academic Honors & Awards

He has received the Geggenheimer award for innovation, both the Dinkelspiel and Lyman Awards, Stanford's highest for service to undergraduates and alumni respectively, and many teaching awards. He is the author of Conceptual Blockbusting, a popular book on creative thinking, The Care and Feeding of Ideas, a book directed toward the management of creativity and change, and Flying Buttresses, Entropy, and O-Rings, a book on the nature of engineering.