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Faculty Profile
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Q:
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Which UNH professor has been traveling the world for more than 30 years?
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A:
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William Adams, professor of Computer Science
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After Traveling the Continents,
Professor is Writing a Book
To Help Others Navigate
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William Adams, center, as a UNH student in 1967, with two unidentified students. He stills plays guitar (sporadically.)
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Unlike the majority of us, who aren’t sure what is on the schedule for the coming weekend, Computer Science Professor Dr. William Adams ’68 knows precisely where he will be next summer.
He’s flying off to Nice, France and Florence, Italy, with his wife, Allana Adams, for their 40th wedding anniversary. From there, they travel to Venice, before settling in at a spa in Austria.
They’re not done there: Dr. Adams and his wife will attend their son’s wedding in Estonia. Then they are traveling to Provence.
The desire to travel courses through the blood of Dr. Adams and his wife, who is an assistant professor of Computer Science at Sacred Heart University and a UNH expatriate. It has brought them halfway around the world, helped them befriend hundreds of individuals in numerous countries, and moved them to write a travel guide about touring Europe. (The working title: “Follow Your Own Umbrella – European Travel Guide”)
“In the early years, when our children were young, travel allowed us an opportunity for the family to be together,” he says. “Now, because we travel regularly and don’t feel pressured to see the sights. We can sit at a table, have a cappuccino, people-watch and relax.”
Dr. Adams’ fascination with how the world works inevitably brought him into contact with the University’s Experiential Education initiative.
Organizers had asked him to become involved, and once he heard that Study Abroad would be a component of the program, he began to listen more closely. He was asked to head the Experiential Education sub-committee responsible for bringing the “Freshman Abroad” initiative to fruition. This fall, he traveled with 12 freshmen to Roehampton University in London, where he taught UNH’s Freshman Seminar for one week and spent time getting to know the students.
“When I first heard of the idea of sending freshmen abroad, I said, ‘Are we kidding?’,” he says. “But the students selected were vetted, and had proven themselves academically in high school. They were considered mature beyond their years, polite and knowledgeable.”
Dr. Adams’ opinion of the initiative progressed from doubtful to hopeful and beyond. “I’m impressed,” he says.
A UNH alumnus (1968), and longtime UNH faculty member, he started at the University in 1974 teaching Physics, then moved to Electrical Engineering, then Computer Science. He spent four years as the University’s first CIO, but recognizing that teaching was his first love, he returned to Computer Science.
As committed as he is to teaching, it is travel that has broadened his perspective. “I have experienced the similarities and differences between the European and American cultures and peoples,” he says. “I know that our students will benefit greatly by experiencing, for themselves, these same similarities and differences. That’s why my wife and I enjoy traveling. We enjoy people, and we have developed friends throughout the world. Study abroad is an ideal mechanism for young adults to join the global community.”
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