Max Roy was an American chemist.
Roy received his undergraduate degree and his Master’s degree at Rice University. His dissertation for his PhD was on heavy water.
He worked on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, and became director of the Explosives Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1946. He wrote a letter that was critical of Edward Teller‘s role in the J. Robert Oppenheimer security hearing.
Roy was friendly with Edith Warner, and attended many of her tea parties. He helped rebuild her home when it was washed away in a flood. He was also friends with Pueblo potter Maria Montoya Martinez, and enjoyed hunting with Martinez’s son. Roy was well known around Los Alamos and Santa Fe, and often ate at the La Fonda hotel or the Palace Restaurant in Santa Fe. He also helped found the Los Alamos National Bank.
Roy lived at 1350 Bathtub Row at Los Alamos, the home in which Hans Bethe had lived during the Manhattan Project. The house is often referred to as the “Bethe House” or the “Roy House,” and is currently being converted into a museum space by the Los Alamos Historical Society.
He funded the Max Roy Scholarship at Rice University.
Information submitted by Robert Brandes, Roy’s nephew.