Wesley D. Allen
Biographical Sketch

Wesley D. Allen was born on September 29, 1961 in Dickson, Tennessee, where he lived continuously until 1979. His primary and secondary education was received in public schools, and he began an association with Vanderbilt University while still in high school. His research in chemistry at Vanderbilt in 1978 under the direction of Professor David J. Wilson concerned adsorbing colloid flotation of heavy metals, a water purification technique, and earned him several national awards, e.g., a Westinghouse Science Talent Search Scholarship (final 40), and an Edison Centennial Scholarship. In August 1979 he entered Vanderbilt University as a Harold Stirling Vanderbilt Honors Scholar and held the attendant full academic scholarship for four years, receiving numerous additional academic honors during this period. His undergraduate thesis concerned ab initio quantum chemical studies of the highly strained, antiaromatic molecule thiirene and its saturated analogue thiirane. In May 1983 he graduated from Vanderbilt University with a Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude with high honors in chemistry, and a double major in chemistry and physics.

In August of 1983 Dr. Allen enrolled in graduate school in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, where he held an NSF Graduate Fellowship in Chemistry from 1983-1986. At Berkeley he continued work in development and chemical applications of ab initio quantum chemistry under the guidance of Professor Henry F. Schaefer III. Dr. Allen completed requirements for the Ph.D. degree in the Department of Chemistry at Berkeley in September 1987. In 1986 Dr. Allen became associated with Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, CA and undertook several additional research projects in a Berkeley-Sandia collaboration. From July 1987 until June 1988 he continued worked at the Combustion Research Facility of Sandia National Laboratories as a postdoctoral research associate under the supervision of Dr. J. S. Binkley. In July 1988 Dr. Allen joined the faculty at Stanford University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry, where he directed Ph.D. research in theoretical chemistry and taught advanced physical chemistry until 1994. Since 1995 Dr. Allen has been at the Center for Computational Chemistry at the University of Georgia, where he holds an appointment as Senior Research Scientist. Dr. Allen is also Adjunct Professor and a Graduate Faculty Member in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Georgia and teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses. He has authored over 84 publications in the scientific literature.

Dr. Allen was raised in a Christian environment and made a personal decision for Christ in 1973. He was heavily involved in campus ministries at Stanford University and has continued to promote Christian outreach and scholarship in various ways at the University of Georgia. He and his wife Anne are active members of Faith Presbyterian Church in Watkinsville, Georgia.

Among other activities, Dr. Allen enjoys tennis, cycling, gardening, snow skiing, water skiing, table tennis, and classical piano. He and his wife are proud parents of their two Covenant children, Ashley Margaret Allen (b. September 22, 2001) and Andrew David Allen (b. July 9, 2003).