He latterly held the position of Sterling Professor Emeritus of physics at Yale University.
[3][4][5] Adair served in the European theatre after volunteering for World War II and was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze star.
After achieving a doctorate in experimental nuclear physics at the University of Wisconsin he worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Long Island.
Later, in his retirement, he studied the effects of extremely low frequency (weak) electromagnetic fields on human health and among other responsibilities, served on the Committee of the American Physical Society (APS) established to investigate the APS Statement on Global Warming in 2007, which was not without its own internal controversy.
Many of the table top experiments which provided the observational facts which formed the basis for Adair's conclusions about the physics of baseball were performed by his longtime technical laboratory expert within the Brookhaven National Laboratory Physics Department, Richard Larsen, who also contributed significantly to much of Adair's Yale-led experimental programme at the BNL AGS.