general biography...

 

 

Text Box: Rustum Roy* Newsweek has accurately described him as 'the leading contrarian' among U.S. scientists. The U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Science, Technology, and Research gave him its only standing ovation in 16 years after one of his recent testimonies. Rustum Roy is the only practicing prominent American scientist who has studied and written critically about U.S. science policy from the inside. His criticisms of U.S. policy, regarded as far out a decade ago, are now called 'prescient'. He calls himself a citizen-scientist trying to be a whole person. Rustum Roy, on The Pennsylvania State University's faculty for sixty years, is among the two or three leading materials scientists in the U.S. Author of over 1000 papers with major contributions to real science from inventing the sol-gel process to glass ceramics to diamond films and nanocomposites and microwave and laser processing of materials. He is the senior-most member in the U.S. National Academy of Engineering specializing in (ceramic) materials--today one of the hottest fields in science. He has also been elected as a foreign member of the Swedish, Japanese, Indian, and Russian National Academies, and 'knighted' by the Emperor of Japan. When the history of postwar American higher education is written, Rustum Roy will be remembered as the most effective champion of interdisciplinarity and integrative learning. In materials science and engineering, the prototype of interdisciplinarity in the science disciplines, Roy not only established working models locally in both degree programs and research laboratories and led them to national prominence, but he led the campaign in the U.S. and abroad to institutionalize 'materials' as a permanent part of academia. His conferences, workshops, and committees all helped, but the establishment of a new professional society - the Materials Research Society - of which he was the principal architect, proved to be the most effective strategy. A decade later, Roy launched a similar campaign, again starting locally, to institutionalize formally the bridge in American education across the widening chasm of C.P. Snow's 'Two Cultures'. He became the prime mover in the Science, Technology, and Society (STS) movement, which, between 1970 and 1990, had established itself on 100 university campuses and had a foothold in 2000 colleges and has successfully infiltrated into the K-12 system. Rustum Roy, a lifelong dedicated radical Christian, was also intensely involved in reforming religious institutions, locally, nationally, and worldwide. The direction was always towards greater inclusivity. He helped start the Sycamore Community, one of the oldest ecumenical house churches in the country, and was for 30 years on the board of the pioneering national ecumenical retreat center, Kirkridge. Since giving the prestigious Hibbert lectures in London, incorporating the insights of science and technology into the world's religions, he has become a spokesman for a 'radical pluralist' integration among the world's religions and cultures. What is most interesting about Rustum Roy is the breadth, not only of his interests, but his activities and achievements in each field. Perhaps the best way to gauge this breadth is to note the subjects of his well-known books (outside his science); science policy; sexual ethics; radioactive waste management; liturgies for small groups. He is as equally at home among the world's leading theologians, clergy, artists, and healing 'gurus' as he is among scientists/engineers from industry or academe, and among social reformers or activists in entrepreneurial business innovation. ______________________________ * Evan Pugh Professor of the Solid State Emeritus, Professor of Geochemistry Emeritus, Professor of Science, Technology, and Society Emeritus at The Pennsylvania State University; Visiting Distinguished Professor of Materials at Arizona State University; Visiting Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona. Address: 102 Materials Research Laboratory, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA  16802; Tel.: 814-865-3421; Fax: 814-863-7040; Email: rroy@psu.edu.