Dr Allan is regarded as a one of the doyens of aquaculture in Australia, having contributed to its development across a number of sectors. He was a pioneer of prawn farming research, before turning his attention to developing cost-effective aquaculture diets, which led Australia to become a global leader in this field. It is estimated his work has helped the Australian industry grow threefold over 20 years to a $1billion industry, and has reduced the cost of production to the Australian aquaculture industry by some 10 per cent a year over this period, or some $100 million.