Professor Emeritus, U Kentucky. He is the winner of the 1978 Herskovits Prize for his history of Nubia, Nubia: Corridor to Africa. In 2005 Adams was awarded the Order of the Two Niles, Sudan's highest civilian honor, for his contributions to Nubian history. Adams's work in Nubia began in 1959 as part of the UNESCO archaeological salvage campaign to excavate sites threatened by the rising flood waters of Lake Nasser following the construction of the Aswan Dam.