[1] Pieter van Royen was born in Lahat, South Sumatra in Dutch East Indies.
[1] In May 1967, he became a curator at the BP Bishop Museum Herbarium in Honolulu, Hawaii;[4] he held this position until his retirement in 1983.
With his work, Van Royen has significantly enhanced knowledge of the New Guinea flora.
His monograph on the Podostemonaceae is a fundamental standard work up to the present day; the American botanist C. Thomas Philbrick wrote about it: “Much of our current knowledge of the taxonomy of the New World Podostemaceae is based in large part on the work of Dr. P. van Royen.
[1] The generic name Vanroyenella Novelo & C.T.Philbrick from the Podostemaceae family also honored P. van Royen.