Staff Profile

Background

I joined the School of Civil Engineering and GeoSciences in 2016 as part of the NUFEB project (http://research.ncl.ac.uk/nufeb/) in the role of senior Research Associate. Prior to this I gained experience across the university  in research support and system administration and roles. And prior to that, I completed my PhD right here at Newcastle.

Qualifications

PhD Newcastle : Chemistry (2008) - Exploring Rapid Nuclear Motion in Molecular Dyads

MSc Newcastle : Physical Chemistry (2003)

BSc (hons) Newcastle: Chemistry (2002)

My research on the NUFEB project involves investigating the mechanisms involved in microbial community assembly. In particular I'm interested in the factors affecting the diversity and stability of microbial systems. The cross-disciplinary nature of the NUFEB project allows us to examine these factors through both experimental methods and computational simulation. 

• Benniston AC, Allen BD, Harriman A, Llarena I, Rostron JP, Stewart B. Accessing molecular memory via a disulfide switch. New Journal of Chemistry 2009, 33(2), 417-427.
• Izod K, Stewart J, Clark ER, McFarlane W, Allen B, Clegg W, Harrington RW. Dynamic Behavior of Intramolecularly Base-Stabilized Phosphatetrylenes. Insights into the Inversion Processes of Trigonal Pyramidal Geramanium(II) and Tin(II) Centers. Organometallics 2009, 28(12), 3327-3337.
• Ziessel R, Allen BD, Rewinska DB, Harriman A. Selective Triplet-State Formation during Charge Recombination in a Fullerene/Bodipy Molecular Dyad (Bodipy=Borondipyrromethene). Chemistry: A European Journal 2009, 15(30), 7382-7393.
• Allen BD, Benniston AC, Harriman A, Llarena I, Sams CA. How the central torsion angle affects the rates of nonradiative decay in some geometrically restricted p-quaterphenyls. Journal of Physical Chemistry A: Molecules, Spectroscopy, Kinetics, Environment and General Theory 2007, 111(14), 2641-2649.
• Allen BD, Benniston AC, Harriman A, Mallon LJ, Pariani C. Competing through-space and through-bond, intramolecular triplet-energy transfer in a supposedly rigid ruthenium(II) tris(2,2′-bipyridine)- fullerene molecular dyad. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2006, 8(35), 4112-4118.
• Goze C, Ulrich G, Mallon LJ, Allen BD, Harriman A, Ziessel R. Synthesis and photophysical properties of borondipyrromethene dyes bearing aryl substituents at the boron center. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2006, 128(31), 10231-10239.
• Van Ramesdonk HJ, Bakker BH, Groeneveld MM, Verhoeven JW, Allen BD, Rostron JP, Harriman A. Ultrafast intersystem crossing in 9,10-anthraquinones and intramolecular charge separation in an anthraquinone-based dyad. Journal of Physical Chemistry A 2006, 110(49), 13145-13150.
• Allen BD, Benniston AC, Harriman A, Rostron SA, Yu C. The photophysical properties of a julolidene-based molecular rotor. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 2005, 7(16), 3035-3040.
• Izod K, McFarlane W, Allen B, Clegg W, Harrington RW. An intramolecularly base-stabilized diphosphagermylene and two unusual germanium(II) ate complexes: A structural, NMR, and DFT study. Organometallics 2005, 24(9), 2157-2167.
• McGough S, Forshaw M, Gerrard C, Wheater S, Allen B, Robinson P. Comparison of a cost-effective virtual Cloud cluster with an existing campus cluster. Newcastle upon Tyne: School of Computing Science, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, 2015. School of Computing Science Technical Report Series 1452.
• McGough AS, Forshaw M, Gerrard C, Wheater S, Allen B, Robinson P. Comparison of a cost-effective virtual cloud cluster with an existing campus cluster. Future Generation Computer Systems 2014, 41, 65-78.
• Jayathilake PG, Gupta P, Li B, Madsen C, Oyebamiji O, Gonzalez-Cabaleiro R, Rushton S, Bridgens B, Swailes D, Allen B, McGough AS, Zuliani P, Ofiteru ID, Wilkinson DJ, Chen J, Curtis TP. A mechanistic individual-based model of microbial communities. PLoS One 2017, 12(8), e0181965.