Wade Adams

Chairman of the Board, Texas Nanotechnology Initiative (TNI)
Director of the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology
Rice University

Technology Solutions for Energy: Challenges and Solutions for the Power Grid

Dr. Wade Adams is the Chairman of the Board for TNI and the Director of the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology at Rice University. The Center is devoted to the development of new innovations on the nanometer scale. Some of CNST’s current thrusts include research in carbon nanotubes, medical applications of C60, nanoporous membranes, molecular computing, and nanoshell diagnostic and therapeutic applications. CNST is part of a major initiative at Rice to expand activities in nano, bio, info and enviro science and engineering, and to expand interactions with the Texas Medical Center, the largest concentration of medical research facilities in the world.

Wade retired from the US Air Force senior executive ranks in January 2002, as the Chief Scientist of the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. He was responsible for providing advice to the laboratory director and staff on the technical and scientific merit of the laboratory’s research and development programs, and he also directed the in-house research program.

Wade was appointed a senior scientist (ST) in the Materials Directorate of the Wright Laboratory in 1995. Prior to that he was a research leader and in-house research scientist in the directorate.

For the past 31 years he has conducted research in polymer physics, concentrating on structure-property relations in high-performance organic materials. He is internationally known for his research in high-performance rigid-rod polymer fibers, X-ray scattering studies of fibers and liquid crystalline films, polymer dispersed liquid crystals, and theoretical studies of ultimate polymer properties. He has written more than 190 publications on these topics, including several review articles and two edited books. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Dr. Adams retired from the Air Force Reserve in the rank of Colonel in 1998.

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