| Neil Kensington Adam | |
| Birth Date: | 1891 11, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Cambridge, England |
| Death Place: | Southampton, England |
| Workplaces: | University of Sheffield University College London University of Southampton University of Cambridge |
| Alma Mater: | Trinity College, Cambridge |
| Awards: | Fellow of the Royal Society[1] |
Neil Kensington Adam (5 November 1891 – 19 July 1973) was a British chemist.[1]
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]
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]
Adam was married to Winifred Wright;[1] they were active Christian Scientists.[6] Adam died, aged 81, in Southampton.[1]