Career
During World World War II, Adams worked in the Radar laboratories of the British Ministry of Aircraft Production where he learned physics and engineering on the job. After the war he moved to Harwell and the Atomic Energy Research Establishment. He had no qualifications but became expert in the design and construction of the advanced machines and instruments used in physics research, designing the Harwell Synchrocyclotron.
In 1953 he joined European Organization of Nuclear Research as director of the Proton Synchrotron division.
After the tragic death of Professor C. J. Bakker, European Organization of Nuclear Research Director-General, in April 1960, the Council of European Organization of Nuclear Research appointed Mr Adams to the post of acting Director-General.
Returning to European Organization of Nuclear Research in 1971 as Director-General of Laboratory II, he led the design of the Super Proton Synchrotron. He split the duties of European Organization of Nuclear Research Director General with Willibald Jentschke and then Léon van Hove during the 1970s.
With the reorganisation of European Organization of Nuclear Research in 1976, he became the executive Director-General, working on obtaining funding for the LEP collider.
The John Adams Institute for Accelerator Science, an accelerator physics research institute comprising researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London and the University of Oxford is named in his honour.