Tom Allen received his BS in biology from Indiana University in Bloomington in 1994. He received MS and PhD degrees from Auburn University in forestry and plant pathology in 1999 and 2003, respectively. After graduating, he was a postdoctoral research associate with The University of Georgia at Griffin (2003–2005), where he worked on yeasts present in the phylloplane of turfgrass as potential biocontrol agents with Dr. James Buck and Dr. Lee Burpee. In 2005, Allen moved to Amarillo, Texas, and joined Dr. Charlie Bush’s research program as an assistant research scientist with Texas A&M University in Amarillo–Bushland (2005–2007). Allen worked exclusively on Karnal bunt of wheat in wheat fields around Phoenix, Arizona. In 2007, he joined the faculty at Mississippi State University at the Delta Research and Extension Center in Stoneville as an extension plant pathologist for the major row crops grown in the Mississippi Delta, including corn, cotton, grain sorghum, rice, soybean, and wheat. His appointment changed in 2008 and is currently 80% extension and 20% research. He has been a member of APS and the Southern Division of APS since 2000. He has also been actively involved in the Mississippi Association of Plant Pathologists and Nematologists, Southern Soybean Disease Workers, and several regional projects, including NCERA-208 (response to emerging threat: soybean rust), NCERA-212 (soybean diseases), the predecessors of NCERA-137 (soybean diseases), and NCERA-184 (management of small grain diseases). Allen has been active in bacterial blight of cotton research since 2011 in addition to working with target spot as well as Cotton leafroll dwarf virus research efforts in Mississippi.
