CGCS Directory

Biographical Statement:
Dr. David Allen is the Gertz Regents Professor of Chemical Engineering, and the Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Resources, at the University of Texas at Austin. He earned his Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1983, served 12 years on the engineering faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles, and then joined the UT Austin College of Engineering faculty in 1995. He is the author of six books and over 170 papers in areas ranging from coal liquefaction and heavy oil chemistry to the chemistry of urban atmospheres. For the past decade, his work has focused primarily on urban air quality and the development of materials for environmental education. Dr. Allen was a lead investigator for the first and second Texas Air Quality Studies, which involved hundreds of researchers drawn from around the world, and which have had a substantial impact on the direction of air quality policies in Texas. He has also developed environmental educational materials for engineering curricula and for the University’s core curriculum. The quality of his work has been recognized by the National Science Foundation (through the Presidential Young Investigator Award), the AT&T Foundation (through an Industrial Ecology Fellowship), the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (through the Cecil Award for contributions to environmental engineering), and the State of Texas (through the Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award). He has won teaching awards at the University of Texas and UCLA.