Adams served as co-editor of the book Biodiversity of the Southeastern United States: Aquatic Communities.
Adams, who joined ORNL in 1974, is a research staff member in the Environmental Biotechnology Section of the Environmental Sciences Division. His primary research focus is on projects dealing with the effects of environmental stressors on aquatic ecosystems.
He is a member of the American Fisheries Society, the Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, the Society of Aquatic Ecosystem Health, Sigma Xi, and a fellow in the American Institute of Fishery Research Biologists.
Adams has written more than 60 papers related to bioenergetics and aquatic ecology and serves as an associate editor for the Society of Aquatic Ecosystem Health.
He received a bachelor's degree in wildlife biology and a master's degree in zoology from North Carolina State University and was awarded a doctoral degree in marine biology by the University of North Carolina.
Adams is an adjunct faculty member at Duke University, and at the University of Tennessee. He and his wife, Diane, live in Oak Ridge with their daughter.
ORNL, one of the Department of Energy's multiprogram national research and development facilities, is managed by Martin Marietta Energy Systems, which also manages the Oak Ridge K-25 Site and the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant.