ALLEN R G

UNITED KINGDOM (see also List of Individuals)

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19.2.1918 Leicester/UK - 23.12.1981 /UK

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Ronald George Allen graduated in physics from the University of Leicester, and went on to gain his PhD degree from the University of Cambridge for a research on the mechanical theories of filtration. From 1955, he was the director of the Water Research Association WRA in Redhill, Surrey. During the following twenty years Allen was at the forefront of the European developments in water supply, distribution and quality technologies with a great impact on these issues also in neighboring countries, such as the Netherlands. The WRA was reorganized in 1974 together with the former Water Pollution Research Laboratory WPRL to become the Water Research Center WRC again under the direction of Allen until his sixtieth birthday, when being retired. He was awarded a Fellowship of the Institute of Physics; he was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, an Officer of the Order of the British Empire OBE and an Honorary Member of the American Waterworks Association.

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The United Kingdom appointed in 1898 a Royal Commission to investigate methods for sewage treatment and disposal. In 1915 a body was set up to promote and supervise water pollution research. After the Water Pollution Research Board was founded in 1927, it was taken over in 1940 by the Water Pollution Research Laboratory WPRL with research projects in effluent problems. The Water Research Association WRA funded from the mid 1950s the UK water supply organizations. In 1989, the Water Research Centre WRC was privatized and continued as WRc in Medmenham, Buckinghamshire. The WRA published until the early 1970s a total of 85 Technical Papers TP summarizing the results of the research projects. Allen was mainly responsible for the national and the international research organization and less for the scientific and the technical advance in his field.

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_{Allen, R.G. (1962). Research and the water engineer. Journal Institution Water Engineers 16(5): 347-356.}

_{Allen, R.G. (1967). The Water Research Association. Aqua 10(1): 7-21.}

_{Anonymous (1955). Water Research Association: Appointment of Director. Journal of the Institution of Water Engineers 9(4): 290. P}

_{Anonymous (1956). R.G. Allen. Technique de l'eau 10(4): 14. P Anonymous (1978). Retirement of Dr. R.G. Allen. Aqua 21(2): 13. P Anonymous (1982). Dr. R.G. Allen. Aqua 25(2): 40. P Wijnstra, G. (1982). In memoriam Dr. R.G. Allen. H2O 15(2): N6.}