DR. DAVID ADAMS
BIOGRAPHY
Dr David Adams retired in 2001 from UNESCO where he was the Director of the
Unit for the International Year for the Culture of Peace, proclaimed for the
Year 2000 by the United Nations General Assembly. Following a career as
Professor of Psychology for 23 years at Wesleyan University (Connecticut, USA),
he had come to UNESCO in 1992 to develop the Culture of Peace Programme as an
supplement and alternative to military peacekeeping operations. His
responsibilities have included development of national culture of peace projects
in El Salvador and Mozambique and research and development of the culture of
peace concept. On behalf of UNESCO he prepared UN documents, including the draft
Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace (1999). While at
Wesleyan University, and previously at Yale University, he was a specialist on
the brain mechanisms of aggressive behaviour, the evolution of war, and the
psychology of peace activists, and he helped to develop and publi! cize the
Seville Statement on Violence. He is the author of several books and numerous
publications in neurophysiology, cardiovascular physiology, genetics, ethology,
biopsychology, social psychology, cross-cultural anthropology, history, and
ethics. A number of these studies have helped lay the scientific basis for work
towards a culture of peace.