Roy is an RBGE mycologist (retired). He received an MBE for contributions to mycology, particularly recognising his teaching and support for amateurs as well as professional mycologists based in the global south. He received the Royal Society of Edinburgh Patrick Neill medal for contributions to Science. He was the first recipient of the Outstanding Contribution Award of Nature of Scotland 2012 for mycological contributions, and the first recipient of the Plant Life International Smart Award 2011 for activities in conservation.

Roy graduated from Sheffield University with a 1st Class BSc (1960) before completing a PhD at Edinburgh University, and then joining the staff of the RBGE as Scientific Officer progressing to Senior Principal Scientific Officer and submitting a successful DSc to Sheffield University. He became Head of RBGE’s Mycology & Plant Pathology on the appointment of D.M. Henderson to Regius Keeper.

Roy has published over 150 academic and popular science papers. He has collected fungi and lectured throughout North America and Europe, with stays in both, initially studying arctic/alpine ecosystems. He has made three trips to Cameroon, and visited diverse sites over a period of twenty years in Thailand and Malyasia. He has made extensive trips to Australia and one to India and Zambia. Roy is currently carrying out co-operative work with researchers in Spain (Madrid Bot. Garden) and Thailand (Nakhan Panon University). He is also cataloguing and data-basing the old collections of fungi held in the Edinburgh herbarium and is custodian of the valuable and extensive fungal collections by the late E.J.H. Corner.

Roy is a Former Acting Regius Keeper RBGE, during the inter-regium between Prof. J. McNeill & the appointment of Prof. D. Ingram. He is an Associate Professor Strathclyde University, an Honorary Associate of Aberdeen University, and Visiting Professor at Ramkanhaeng and Suraneree Universities, Thailand. Roy is also an Honorary Member of the Mycological Association of America and an Honorary Member the German Mycological Society. He is a corresponding member of the Nederlandse Mycologische Vereniging.

Roy is a former Editor of the Biological and Medical Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh; Past President of the British Mycological Society; Former Chair of the Institute of Biology Scottish Branch, the Yorkshire Naturalists Union and the South East Scotland Fungus group. He is the President of Clyde and Argyll Fungus Group.