Michael Roy

Michael (Mike) J. Roy was raised in Beloit, WI and attended the University of Wisconsin-Platteville from 1965 to 1969. He began majoring in pre-forestry, having been influenced by his participation at Eagle Scout forestry camp, Trout Lake, WI, in 1962. However, he soon developed an appreciation for invertebrate zoology and went on to receive a B.S. degree in Biology (Zoology). His most memorable days at UWP were of biology field trips, in chemistry and
biology laboratories, of work-study in biology, from walking the woods or paddling the rivers of SW Wisconsin, and of the friends and teachers he came to know during those years in Platteville.

Thanks to the encouragement of faculty at UW-Platteville, he went on to earn a Master of Science in Tropical Medicine and Medical Parasitology at LSU Medical Center, New Orleans. Upon graduation he was drafted into the U.S. Army, received a commission in the Medical Service Corps, and then spent 4 years in an Army area clinical laboratory in Landstuhl, Germany as parasitologist, mycologist and immunologist. From 1975 to 1979 he attended UW-Madison and earned a Ph.D. in Pathology with research training in immunology. After 3 years in Denver, CO as a postdoctoral fellow in mucosal immunology research, he moved to Maryland, where he was employed as a civilian with the US Army, first in mucosal immunology and vaccine research at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, DC, and then in vaccine development and regulatory affairs, at the US Army Medical Materiel Activity.

In 1992 he left the government and went into the biotechnology industry, spending 3 years at MedImmune, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD, and then 6 years at Agracetus (later PowderJect Vaccines), Madison, WI. At those start-up companies, he focused on vaccine research and development, serving as Director and Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and leading development efforts on several biotechnology products. At Agracetus and again today he is also involved in development of biopharmaceuticals in plants. In 2001 Mike began his own consulting firm in biotechnology development and, two years later joined Science Applications International Corporation, a consulting firm with considerable expertise in the biomedical sciences. He currently provides program management, clinical and non-clinical and regulatory affairs and quality consulting advice on vaccine and biopharmaceutical research and development to universities, government agencies, private firms and foundations.

From 1979 until his retirement in 2003, he served as a Laboratory Officer in the U.S. Army Reserves, with assignments in clinical laboratories and, for 13 years before his retirement in 2003, developing diagnostics for highly infectious diseases at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Research, Ft. Detrick, MD. In 2000 he became Adjunct Professor at the UW-Madison, co-developing the Biotechnology Operations course in the Master of Science Program.

Mike will always have great interest in the flora of Wisconsin and this hobby has been heightened by ownership and stewardship of land in northern Grant County, not far from Boscobel. It is here, among the walnuts, oaks, wildlife and, he is afraid to admit, the weeds and invasive species, of Applewood Tree Farm, he spends his happiest times. Although Mike’s profession long ago strayed from botany to zoology and even though he will never be a graduate of the
plant sciences or forestry, he has come full-circle, back to the plant biology of this wonderful region.

Based on Mike’s full circle passion of biology, and the remarkable field and research experiences that he had as a student, this award has been developed to foster the engagement of current and future students in these life changing activities.