Biography

By day, Allan is Associate Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the University of Chicago, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Medicine, Section of Genetic Medicine. His academic lab’s page is The Drummond Lab. He joined the UChicago faculty in 2011 after an independent fellowship at Harvard. He received his Ph.D. in Computation and Neural Systems from Caltech, advised by Frances H. Arnold (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2018).

By night, Allan is a sculptor and visual artist whose work has been featured in Colossal, Nerdist, PBS NewsHour, The Scientist, and elsewhere. He works primarily in metal and dabbles in ink and pencil. He has had two solo exhibitions with Roq La Rue and has contributed to multiple group shows. He is presently at work on pieces for his third exhibition.

Artist statement

My work is an invitation to look closer at the intricate details of the living world, to see with new eyes. Working mainly in metals, using a jeweler’s methods and a scientist’s trained perception, I aim to capture the astonishing details of life in ways that inspire wonder. My subjects are most often small, from insects down to single cells, and most often familiar. These sculptures, rendered in lasting materials, allow you to touch the often untouchable, to hold and explore ife that is too small, skittish, or fragile to experience a human’s tactile senses. My intention is to create wonder in both senses: awe, and curiosity.