At our November 18 luncheon meeting Professor John S. Adams will speak on the topic “How Metropolitan Areas Work.” John Adams, now immediate past president of UMRA, is well qualified to address the subject of metropolitan areas. As professor of Geography, Environment, and Society in CLA and of Planning and Public Affairs in the Humphrey Institute, he has taught classes, done research, and directed master’s and doctoral students in urban studies.

Adams has written, edited, and co-authored articles, books, and reports on the American city; on regional economic development; on intra-urban migration; and on housing markets, urban transportation, and urban development in the United States and the former USSR. Among his courses and seminars were Human Geography, Urban Geography, American Cities—a two semester course focusing on population analysis, housing demand, land use, and transportation, and the metropolitan economy—and The Twin Cities of Minneapolis–St. Paul, and Russia and Environs. His publications are numerous and impressive in the area of spatial organization in cities and environs.

Professor Adams received his B.A. in economics and mathematics from the University of St. Thomas and his M.A. in economics at the University of Minnesota. He completed his Ph.D. in economic geography at Minnesota in 1966, going on to teach at Pennsylvania State University until he was invited back to Minnesota in 1970.

In administrative roles at the University, he was director of the University of Minnesota School of Public Affairs, 1976–1979, and then was the first director of the Humphrey School of Public affairs—the University’s graduate school of public policy, urban and regional planning, and public/nonprofit management. In the College of Liberal Arts, he directed the Urban Studies Program and served as acting director of the Master of Planning Program, 1971–79. After his retirement from the Department of Geography, he served as interim associate dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs, 2007–08.

Adams has also served in several capacities outside of our University. He was visiting professor at Olsztyn University and Marie Curie–Sklodowska University in Poland, at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and as a Fulbright Professor of Geography at Moscow State University in the USSR. He served as economic geographer in residence at the Bank of America World Headquarters while as visiting research fellow at the Institute for Urban and Regional Development at the University of California, Berkeley, and he was Fulbright Professor at the Interdisciplinary Institute for Spatial Organization at the Economic University of Vienna in Austria.

Since his retirement John Adams has been active in supporting many activities of the University.

Most recently, he served as the president of UMRA, during which he made special efforts to improve our organizational connections with the regents, central administration, college deans, and faculty at the University of Minnesota. His work has truly been impressive, and he has given us great leadership in those efforts.

We now look forward to hearing him discuss “How Metropolitan Areas Work” on November 18.

— Hal Miller, UMRA President