ADAMS, WALTER SYDNEY ), American astronomer, was born in Antioch, Northern Syria, on Dec. 20, 1876. He graduated from Dartmouth college, Hanover, N.H., in 1898, studied at the University of Chicago in 1899-190o and at the University of Munich in 1901. For the ensuing three years he was an assistant and instructor in the Yerkes observatory at Lake Geneva, Wis. He was assistant astronomer at the Mt. Wilson observatory of the Carnegie Institution, Pasadena, Calif., from 1904 to 1909, when he was made astronomer. He served also as acting or assistant director from 1910 until 1923, at which time he was appointed director of the observatory. His writings include a memoir on the rotation of the sun and numerous papers on stellar motions, solar and stellar spectroscopy, and other astronomical subjects.