The Equine Research Hall of Fame — W.R. Allen

Dr. W.R. Allen is best known for his work in equine fertility research.

He was chairman of the first International Equine Reproduction Symposia, and is the director of the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association Equine Fertility Unit, Newmarket, Suffolk, United Kingdom.

Inducted December 1990.

For more than 30 years, Dr. W .R. “Twink” Allen has been vitally interested in the field of equine fertility research. His major contributions from within the laboratory arise from the areas of endocrinological and immunological aspects of early pregnancy in horses, equine embryology (embryo transfer techniques), and spermatogenesis in stallions. Outside the research lab, Dr. Allen is known as a spell-binding lecturer and active member of several professional organizations, is widely published, and was chairman and editor of the first (1974) International Equine Reproduction Symposia, now held every four years.

Dr. Allen was born in New Zealand and received his B.V.Sc. degree from the University of Sydney (Australia) in 1964. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in 1970 at the School of Veterinary Medicine in Cambridge, England. Since 1975, he has been the director of the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association Equine Fertility Unit (formerly at Cambridge), located since April 1989, at Mertoun Paddocks in Newmarket. Also, since 1984, Dr. Allen has been an adjunct professor in veterinary microbiology at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Principal among the research projects conducted by Dr. Allen and his team of veterinary surgeons and research scientists are:

(a) endocrinological and immunological aspects of early pregnancy in equids;

(b) endocrinological functions of the equine fetoplacental unit;

(c) equine embryogenesis and the recovery, manipulation, storage and transfer of equine embryos;

(d) endogenous and exogenous hormonal control of the mare’s estrous cycle, and

(e) infertility states affecting spermatogenesis in stallions.

Dr. Allen has enjoyed a long-standing involvement with the British Equine Veterinary Association (of which he was president), the Society for the Study of Fertility, the “Journal of Reproduction and Fertility”, and the forementioned international symposia. He is a member of the editorial board of the “Equine Veterinary Journal”. Dr. Allen’s awards include the Bielanski Gold Medal, the Academy of Science Medal and an honorary doctorate degree from the Academy of Agriculture at Krakow University, Poland, and an honorary Diploma of Equine Stud Medicine from the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.