Dr. Mary Beth Adams, a 2016 Purdue Distinguished Agricultural Alumni Award honoree and 2020 Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, may have retired from the U.S. Forest Service in 2020, but her impact on the forestry world is far from complete.
Adams spent three weeks in China in the fall of 2024 as part of a scientific exchange opportunity, during which she traveled around the country learning about forestry and soil science research as well as sharing her own research.
She presented invited talks about using the Forestry Reclamation Approach to restore ecosystem services and ensure soil health at both the International Symposium on Forest Soils in Hangzhou (October 15-19) and the International Union of Soil Science Inter-Congress in Nanjing (October 20-23).
During her time in China, Adams also visited East China Normal University, Shanghai University, Zhejiang Agriculture and Forestry University, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing Normal University, Fujian Normal University and Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University. At each of these institutions she was hosted by a local faculty member, visited with students and researchers and presented a seminar about some of her research. 
“It was a great visit (definitely not a vacation!), and I learned a lot,” Adams shared. “My trip was solely paid for by the two international meetings and the local host universities – no funding from the Forest Service or WVU. I was there as a retired private citizen, which the Chinese find as puzzling as my neighbors here in Seymour (Indiana) do.”
Adams, who earned her bachelor’s degree in forestry in 1980 and master’s degree in forestry in 1982 from Purdue, is an emeritus research soil scientist for the Northern Research Station of the USDA Forest Service. She served the Forest Service in various roles, beginning as an assistant program manager of the spruce-fir research program in 1989. She spent the next 20 years as a project leader at the Northern Research Station in Parsons, West Virginia, and acted as a Research Soil Scientist at the station from 2010 until her retirement. Much of her work was conducted on the Fernow Experimental Forest near Parsons, W.V.
She also served as a visiting researcher with the West Virginia University Davis College of Agriculture, Division of Forestry and Natural Resources from 2012 to 2020 and is now an emeritus adjunct faculty member at West Virginia University.
Over her career, Adams conducted research on forest soils, nutrient cycling, hydrology, and the effects of disturbance on forest ecosystems, specializing in large, long-term experiments.
All told, she has published more than 180 scientific articles, served on many graduate committees at WVU
and other institutions, served on advisory committees and has been an editor for several significant journal volumes and books. In retirement, she continues to work on her long-term research studies, mentoring younger scientists and remaining active in professional activities.
In addition to the honors presented by Purdue and FNR, Adams was recognized as a Fellow of the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) in 2009. In 2019, Adams received the Barrington Moore Memorial Award, presented by the Society of American Foresters, and was honored as an Inspiring Woman for Outstanding Mentoring by the Forest Service’s Northern Research Station. In 2020, she was inducted into the West Virginia Agriculture and Forestry Hall of Fame and in 2021 she was presented the S.A. Wilde Distinguished Lectureship in Forest Soils by the SSSA.
Adams’ trip to China also garnered notice by The Tribune newspaper in Seymour, Indiana, and was featured in a story titled “Lifelong research shared across the world.”
