Rustum Roy combined interests in science and the humanities in a rare mixture of contributions, many of them related to some 60 years of teaching and research at Penn State University.
Dr. Roy, a world-recognized expert in materials science whose interesting life led him to encounters with Mahatma Gandhi as a boy and Mikhail Gorbachev as a scientist, died Thursday of cancer in his State College home. He was 86.
His present title at Penn State, where he worked well into his 80s, was Evan Pugh professor emeritus of the solid state. It was the same university where Dr. Roy, born and raised in India, met his wife, Della, when they were graduate students in science in the late 1940s.
During his faculty tenure at Penn State, where he was known for working in his office late into the night, he created its Materials Research Laboratory. More broadly, in 1973 he founded the Materials Research Society, an international society which now has members in 80 countries.
Constantly on the phone as a scholar with vast interests, Dr. Roy's reputation for innovative thinking grew over the years. He was a renaissance man seeking to bridge hard science with concern for social justice, religion, the environment, alternative medicine and other broad concerns.
He advocated for strong interdisciplinary approaches to research and academics and testified frequently before Congress on scientific issues, supplementing voluminous writings covering such areas as ceramics, microwave processing and the structure of water.
"At every step of the way, he seemed to be ahead of the curve -- in research as well as in the way he managed the scientific enterprise," said Carlo Pantano, director of Penn State's Materials Research Institute, as the laboratory founded by Dr. Roy is now known. As both a knowledgeable and caring geochemistry professor, Dr. Roy was highly regarded among graduate students who flocked to his courses.
"He was a person who was always making you think ... and he influenced so many people," said longtime friend Sister Rita Yeasted, English Department chairwoman at La Roche College. "He was an innovator and creator."
Dr. Roy was raised a Christian but did not believe in the dominance of any one religion. He founded the Sycamore Community in State College, a group of people of broad faith in the 1960s who began practicing religion in one another's homes without a minister. He also became a leader in Kirkridge, an ecumenical retreat center in Eastern Pennsylvania that encouraged its religious-minded visitors to also practice strong social activism.
Dr. Roy was not only a senior member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering but was also elected a foreign member of the Swedish, Japanese, Indian and Russian national academies.
"He was always making connections with people all over the world, not only in science but religion," said his longtime administrative assistant, Kathleen Mourant. "He could juggle a lot of balls at one time, and he was very good at connecting people to each other from all different fields."
Dr. Roy served as a science adviser to multiple Pennsylvania governors and chaired the Science and Society Sector of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's State of the World forum.
During his long tenure at Penn State, Dr. Roy was also a distinguished professor of materials at Arizona State University and a visiting professor of medicine at the University of Arizona.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by three sons, Neill R. Roy of State College, Jeremy R. Roy of Arlington, Texas, and Ronnen A. Roy of Bethesda, Md.; a brother, Prodipto Roy, of India; a sister, Ioni Dipti Sisodia, of Georgia; and two grandchildren.
A funeral was held Sunday, and a memorial service is planned for Oct. 17 at Penn State.
Memorial contributions may be made to Friends of Health, 528 S. Pugh St., State College PA 16801.
First Published: September 1, 2010, 10:00 a.m.
