Academic history
He joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, where he became the youngest tenured professor at the time. He is also widely known as the founder of the Biological Basis of Behavior Program at Penn[11] which was the prototype of the integrative study of behavior from a biological perspective. This program became a national model and helped spur the development of behavioral neuroscience in the American undergraduate curriculum. For this work, he received the Dana Award for Pioneering Achievement in Higher Education.[12] The University of Pennsylvania now presents an annual "Norman Adler Lecture in the Biological Basis of Behavior" in his honor.
He has had a number of distinguished students in the field, including Martha McClintock at the University of Chicago, Elizabeth Adkins-Regan at Cornell University, Avery Gilbert, Jack Yanovski, Alan Rosenwasser, Stephen Zoloth at Northeastern, Penny Bernstein at Kent State University, Joseph Anisko, Rodney Pelchat, Karen Stewart, and James Toner.
He served as Dean of Penn's Undergraduate College of Arts and Sciences, Dean of Yeshiva College for a decade, and was also Vice-Provost for Research and Graduate Education, and Professor of Psychology, at Northeastern University. He has also held visiting, teaching, or research appointments at University of Edinburgh, Drexel University Dept. of Engineering, and Swarthmore College.
He was University Professor of Psychology at Yeshiva University and Special Assistant to the Provost for Curriculum and Research Initiatives.[13]
Contributions to higher education
In addition to his work in behavioral neuroscience and its dissemination across American academics, he is an authority in American higher education, specializing in interdisciplinary and integrative learning. He initiated the Penn Reading Project in 1991 which has continued for over 20 years as an integrative introduction to liberal learning for college freshmen newly arriving on campus. Subsequently, Freshman Reading Projects have been adopted widely as part of the "first-year experience" at many college campuses.[14] For this work, in 1992 Adler was inducted as an honorary member of the University of Pennsylvania's Philomathean Society—the oldest continually existing collegiate literary society in the United States.[15]
He currently serves on the editorial board of Liberal Education, the journal of the American Association of Colleges and Universities; chairs a project for AACU's section on ‘Big Questions: Faith and Reason on the College Campus’.[16] In this project, citing data that there is a high level of spirituality among students in College because they continually question the "deeper" issues in their lives, the modern curriculum needs to address this.[17] He lectures widely and is a consultant to universities and foundations.
He has received numerous prizes and honors, including two Guggenheim Fellowships,[18] Sigma Xi National Lecture, Phi Beta Kappa, Fellowship to Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral sciences, Lindback Award for Teaching Excellence,[19] and was in the first group of recipients for the American Psychological Association's Distinguished Scientific Awards for Early Career Contributions to Psychology.