Rustum Roy Dies At 86, Penn State Announces; Founded Materials Research Lab

Rustum Roy, the founder of Penn State’s Materials Research Lab, has passed away, the university announced Thursday morning.

He was 86, according to Penn State.

Well known in State College, Roy held emeritus status as Evan Pugh Professor of the Solid State at the university. He also was famous in his field and was considered among the top materials scientists in the world.

Roy wrote more than 1,000 papers and championed interdisciplinary and integrative learning, according to a biography on his personal website. He was a senior member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

Born in India in 1924, Roy attended Penn State as a student in the 1940s. He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1961 and was affiliated with the university for more than 60 years, another biography shows.

Among his many distinguished roles, Roy helped to advise multiple Pennsylvania governors on matters of science, served as a committee member at the National Academy of Sciences, and pursued more than two dozen patents of his own.

Roy served as a visiting professor at Arizona State University and the University of Arizona. Earlier this year, he was interviewed by Deepak Chopra.