Allred studied chemistry at the
University of North Carolina and earned a bachelor's degree in 1953. He studied at
Harvard University and earned a master's degree in 1955, followed by a doctorate in 1957. In 1956 he was an instructor, 1958 assistant professor, and 1969 professor at the College of Arts and Sciences of
Northwestern University. From 1980 to 1986, he was chairman of the chemistry department. In 1992, he became acting vice president for research as well as dean of the graduate school. In 1987, he was a visiting scholar at
Cambridge University, in 1965 Honorary Research Associate at University College London and in 1967 at the
University of Rome. From 1963 to 1965, he was a Sloan Research Fellow. He has been a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science since 1981. Allred introduced the
Allred-Rochow scale of electronegativity with
Eugene G. Rochow in 1958. They predicted that electronegativity, should be related to the charge experienced by an electron on the "surface" of an atom. They calculated this formula for the electronegativity,
χ, where " Z_{\rm eff}" is equal to the
effective nuclear charge and "r_{\rm cov}" is the
covalent radius. When the covalent radius is expressed in
picometers: ::\chi = 3590{{Z_{\rm eff}}\over{r^2_{\rm cov}}} + 0.744. When expressed in
Angstroms however, the value 3590, becomes .359. ::\chi = .359{{Z_{\rm eff}}\over{r^2_{\rm cov}}} + 0.744 Allred has also since dealt with synthetic inorganic, organometallic chemistry, and electrochemistry. ==References==