Robert MCC Adams Robert McC. Adams, until his retirement in 1994, was the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. He is presently adjunct professor at the University of California, San Diego, and has also served on the faculty of the University of Chicago in its Oriental Institute and Department of Anthropology. He is the author or editor of several books, including The Land Behind Baghdad and Paths of Fire: An Anthropologist's Inquiry into Western Society. In 1996, Adams was recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Society for American Archaeology. Read More Read Less