James H. Adair

James H. Adair is a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Bioengineering and Pharmacology at The Pennsylvania State University.  His research and teaching interests most recently include biological-nanoscale composite particulates for nanomedical applications, based on colloid and interfacial chemistry, and material chemistry.

Dr. Adair received his B.S. in Chemistry (1975) and M.S. (1979) and Ph.D. (1981) in Materials Science and Engineering, all from the University of Florida.  From 1981-1982, he was a Fulbright Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Western Australia at the Royal Perth Hospital where he studied the biophysical chemistry origin of pathological biomineralization.  From 1982 to 1997, Dr. Adair held a variety of professional positions including principal research scientist at Battelle Memorial Institute, research associate at the Materials Research Lab at Penn State, and associate professor at the University of Florida.  He has been at Penn State as a Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Pharmacology since 1998.  In 2005, he co-founded Pendrea Pharmaceutical, Inc. originally as Keystone Nano, Inc.) and currently serves on the Board of Directors and chief science officer.  Dr. Adair is the author/co-author of about 300 publications including over 260 papers, more than 28 US and foreign patents and co-editor of 12 books including the Handbook of Characterization Techniques for the Solid-Solution Interface.

Dr. Adair is a Fellow of The American Ceramic Society and the World Academy of Ceramics. He has served in multiple capacities in The American Ceramic Society at the local and national levels.  In 2017, he was one of six Faculty Scholar Medal awardees and named as the 2018 Inventor of the Year in the Penn State University System.