Chemical engineer, inventor and entrepreneur, 22, already business start-up veteran

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Although still in college, 22-year-old Dobyns-Bennett High School graduate Gregory Allen already has founded, grown and sold a business with his girlfriend, a venture that makes lab-created diamonds. And in a month or two, he hopes to launch a business making and marketing a portable air sensor that tests for volatile organic chemicals in the air, as soon as the U.S. patent is finalized and awarded to him. The device is called the AirStatus One and is about the size of a large vehicle remote fob. It can be attached to the lapel of a jacket for sensor status on the go. The AirStatus One "is designed to measure air components and then alert the user if there are any dramatic changes," University of Alabama student Allen wrote in a followup email Tuesday, Feb. 3, after a telephone interview earlier that day. In addition, he recently won a second-place prize in a contest for another project while a UA student. The invention is to be patented by UA, but he will share in revenues after UA gets a patent and royalties start flowing. The annual contest is called River Pitch. "The 'Auto-IMEC' project was part of my Undergraduate Lab with Dr. (James W.) Harris. It automatically runs the experiment and calculates the integrated molar extinction coefficient" or IMEC, wrote Allen, who joined the Harris Lab in the spring semester of 2025. That IMEC invention will make the process of chemical labs, such as the Harris lab or ones in private operation by for-profit chemical companies, testing a new catalyst much quicker. He said in a followup interview Friday that process will go from weeks or even months down to days. A catalyst is substance that facilitates a chemical reaction by increasing the rate of the reaction without undergoing any permanent chemical change itself. Allen is a member of the Alpha Kappa Psi professional business fraternity and American Institute of Chemical Engineers or AIChE. In his spare time, he enjoys activities such as basketball. The 6-foot, 2-inch Allen played forward on the Class 4A 2022 boys varsity Tennessee statewide championship basketball team, which his senior year reached finals in Middle Tennessee by besting Johnson City's Science Hill High team in March of that year in regionals. The team later won the state championship in that class. He also does Olympic weight lifting in his spare time. OVERACHIEVER? Allen, asked if he was an overachiever, responded that he doesn't consider himself one. "In terms of an overachiever, you consider it a box other people put you in," Allen said. "I've not done anything other than what I'm capable of doing," said Allen, who said his current GPA or grade point average is 3.93 out of a possible 4.0. The 2022 graduate of Dobyns-Bennett High School in Kingsport attended one year at Robinson Middle School and four years at D-B before, during and after the COVID 19 pandemic. He is on track to graduate UA May 26 with a major in chemical engineering and a business minor. UA COMPETITION DETAILS According to a news release from UA, students from the school "once again impressed the judges during the 2025 River Pitch competition, where West Alabama entrepreneurs shared over 60 unique business ideas. Twelve booths were set up based on topic, and each team presented a three-minute pitch to a panel of judges at their respective booths. "The highly anticipated annual competition awarded 12 first-place prizes worth $1,000. New this year, a $250 prize was awarded for second place," according to the news release. Allen was among the winners earning a second place. T IS FOR TEXAS BOUND Originally from Texas before moving to the Volunteer State during middle school and then Alabama for college, Allen said he plans on moving back to the Lone Star State, specifically Dallas, after graduation from the UA Honors College in the land of the Crimson Tide. Allen met his finacée, Jennifer Roehrs of Dallas, at UA, and said the Dallas native also plans to move to Dalls after her graduation in May. Also planning to become a chemical engineer, Roehrs along with Allen earlier in their college careers "partnered with the largest jewelry manufacture in North America, Stuller (Inc.), who helped come up with the design" for the lab-created diamonds business. He said he got the idea to start that endeavor because before he and Roehrs launched it, no U.S.-based operation made lab-created diamonds. Because it was an existing technology, the two didn't have to apply for a patent and won't draw future revenue from the business, but he said they received the money from the sale. No matter his first career move after graduation, he said he will move to Texas. RIVER PITCH ET AL The senior majoring in chemical engineering with a minor in business developed the IMEC in the Harris Lab in the UA College of Engineering, then presented it at River Pitch. AirStatus One was developed outside the lab. Looking forward on the next steps for AirStatus, Allen plans by March to be selling the AirrStatus on Amazon consumers. He developed and built it separate from the Harris lab at the university. The device detects volatile organic compounds in the air. He said the competition was somewhat akin to the "Shark Tank" television show as competitors try to convince the judges their invention is feasible to produce and market. "We're filing for a patent for this (AirStatus One)," Allen said in a Tuesday telephone interview. "I do want to go into business for myself," he said, adding that the device is "already made" and will be ready to go into production when all the patents and other legal matters are addressed. He said the AirStatus One consumer product that tests for chemical pollutants in the air will "launch mid-March at the latest." CAREER PATH IN PROGRESS The immediate path of his future as an entrepreneur and/or employee of a company is still to be determined, he said, although he said he definitely plans to move to Texas after graduation. He once interned at Eastman Chemical Co. in Kingsport and and he also had a cooperative program through BASF for a year and a half. His mother and brother, Anthony Walker, live in Kingsport. T ALSO STANDS FOR TENNESSEE Asked about influences on him back in Tennessee at D-B, Allen cited Varsity Basketball Coach Chris Poor and Assistant Varsity Basketball Coaches Matt Baker and Brandon Reed, as well as every D-B teacher for his Advanced Placement or AP classes. He said the later group prepared him for college and gave him the chance to earn college credit on AP exams. "Really every teacher I had as part of the AP program was really good," Allen said when asked what at D-B helped prepare him for college and career.