Norman Tenner Adler (June 7, 1941 - September 11, 2016) through his research, teaching, writing, and academic administration, made major contributions to the modern study of biological psychology and in American higher education, having helped develop the fields that are now labeled behavioral neurobiology and evolutionary psychology. 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.
Dr. Adler spent 25 years in the Psychology Department at Penn and was widely regarded as the founder of the Biological Basis of Behavior Program. The BBB Program incorporates faculty from the Departments of Biology, Psychology and the Institute for Neurological Sciences. Dr. Adler served as the first director of the program from 1978 - 1989. 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.
In addition, he served as Dean of Penn's Undergraduate College of Arts and Sciences from 1988 -1993. During that time, he initiated the Penn Reading Project which has continued for over 25 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. 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.