Mary Mennes Allen

Mary Mennes Allen, Wellesley College's first holder of the Jean Glasscock Professorship, is a specialist in microbiology. She received both the B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1960 and 1961, respectively. In 1966, she was awarded the Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Before joining the Wellesley faculty in 1968, she was a post-doctoral research associate at Tufts University. Dr. Allen focuses her research on the study of microbial physiology and biochemistry. Currently investigating the effects of environmental changes on cyanobacteria, her work has been supported by such organizations as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institute of Health and the Research Corporation. She also served 10 years as Project Director for Wellesley's Research Experiences for Undergraduates grant from NSF (which supported summer undergraduate research in the Biology department) and of Wellesley's 1993–99 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Biological Sciences Education Program grant. Most recently she was Co-Principal Investigator on Wellesley's NSF-AIRE (Academic Integration of Research and Education) grant (1998–2002). Allen spoke of "The Joys of Undergraduate Research" when she delivered the second annual Distinguished Faculty Lecture in September 2000.

In 1984 she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and was the first Malcolm Moos Visiting Professor at the Gray Freshwater Biological Institute at the University of Minnesota (1983). She has presented papers at many professional meetings and lectured at numerous colleges and universities.

A 1986 winner of Wellesley's Pinanski Prize for Excellence in Teaching, she has been President of the Council on Undergraduate Research and has served on numerous committees at the College. In 1995 she received the American Society for Microbiology's Carski Award for Distinguished Teaching. In 2000 she was honored by the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) for her nationally respected undergraduate research program and was one of two faculty members in the U.S. to be named the first CUR Fellows.

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Profile last updated: 8/04