Professor Allen is an expert in the chemistry and structure of granites and her approach covers field work (large and medium scale) to the micron scale, studying granite as the main constituent of the earth's crust. She has 20 year’s experience running an ICPMS facility (solution and laser) and has used this instrumentation to date minerals (zircon and other U-Pb bearing minerals), look at diffusion profiles in natural and experimentally produced minerals, determine trace element contents of minerals and rocks including very rare elements like Pt and Au. Recently, she has been extending laser-ICPMS techniques to the accurate trace element analysis of organic compounds (plants, hair).