Joseph Percival "Joe" Allen IV, Ph.D. (born June 27, 1937) is a former NASA astronaut. He logged more than 3,000 hours flying time in jet aircraft. Allen was born in Crawfordsville, Indiana, on June 27, 1937. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Joseph P. Allen III, had resided in Frankfort, Indiana. He attended Mills School, and is a graduate of Crawfordsville High School in Indiana, class of 1955; received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics and Physics from DePauw University in 1959, where he was a member of The Delta Chapter of Beta Theta Pi, and a Master of Science and a Doctor of Philosophy degrees in Physics from Yale University in 1961 and 1965,[2] respectively. Allen was a research associate in the Nuclear Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington prior to his selection as an astronaut. He was a staff physicist at the Nuclear Structure Laboratory at Yale University in 1965 and 1966, and during the period 1963 to 1967, served as a guest researcher at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Allen was selected as a scientist-astronaut by NASA in August 1967 as a member of the second group of scientist-astronauts. He completed flight training at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma. He served as mission scientist while a member of the astronaut support crew for Apollo 15 and served as a staff consultant on science and technology to the President's Council on International Economic Policy. From August 1975 to 1978, Allen served as NASA Assistant Administrator for Legislative Affairs in Washington, D.C. Returning to the Johnson Space Center in 1978, as a senior scientist astronaut, Allen was assigned to the Operations Mission Development Group. He served as a support crew member for the first orbital flight test of the Space Shuttle (Columbia) in April 1981 and was the CAPCOM during the reentry phase for this mission. In addition, in 1980 and 1981, he worked as the technical assistant to the director of flight operations.