Arthur Stanton Adams was an American academic most notable for having served as the President of the University of New Hampshire. He also served as Assistant Dean of Engineering and Director of the Engineering Science Management War Training Program and Provost at Cornell. In 1948 he was appointed the 8th president of the University of New Hampshire. He was chairman of the Reserve Forces Policy Board at the United States Department of Defense from 1953 to 1955. From 1962 to 1965, he served as the second president of the Salzburg Global Seminar, a non-profit organization based in Salzburg, Austria, whose mission is to challenge current and future leaders to develop creative ideas for solving global problems. Dr. Adams co-authored The Development of Physical Thought and Fundamentals of Thermodynamics.

The Reserve Forces Policy Board (RFPB) is a federal advisory committee established by statute within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Its purpose is to "serve as an independent adviser to the Secretary of Defense to provide advice and recommendations to the Secretary on strategies, policies, and practices designed to improve and enhance the capabilities, efficiency, and effectiveness of the reserve components". By law, the Secretary of Defense transmits annually to the President and Congress a separate annual report from the RFPB on reserve component matters the board considers appropriate to include in the report.