Alumni Stories

Professor of Mechanical Engineering (Statutory Chair)
Head of the Department of Engineering Science
University of Oxford

Ronald Roy received a B.S. in engineering physics from the University of Maine, an M.S. in physics from the University of Mississippi, and the M.Phil. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from Yale University.

He formerly served as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Boston University, as a Senior Physicist at the Applied Physics Laboratory and an Associate Research Professor of Bioengineering, both at the University of Washington, and on the research staff at the National Center for Physical Acoustics. In 2006-2007 he served as the 65th George Eastman Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Oxford.

Trained as a physicist and an engineer, Dr. Roy specializes in the application of physical acoustics principles to problems in biomedical acoustics, industrial ultrasonics, and acoustical oceanography -- however, his true passion is the acoustics of bubbles and bubbly media.

Sonoluminescence (light from sound), acoustic cavitation dynamics, shock-driven cavity collapse physics, and bubble-mediated therapeutic ultrasonics are topics of past and current interest.

Most recently, he joined colleagues in developing new techniques for imaging the optical properties of soft tissues through the nonlinear interaction of light and sound (acousto-optic imaging) and is currently exploring novel ways in which nanoparticles can be used in conjunction with laser illumination and high-intensity focused ultrasound to facilitate both optical imaging and focused ultrasound surgery.

Dr. Roy has served on numerous professional society committees, review panels, editorial boards, and was a past Editor-in-Chief of Acoustics Research Letters On Line (now called JASA Express Letters). He is a Fellow and former Vice President of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and a recipient of the ASA Helmholtz-Rayleigh Interdisciplinary Silver Medal.