Darrell Velegol

Darrell Velegol was born and raised in Colliers, WV. He received a Foundation Scholarship from WVU (1988), and graduated with a BS in Chemical Engineering as Chief Engineer of the Senior Design Project (1992). Afterwards he went on to earn his PhD with John Anderson and Steve Garoff at Carnegie Mellon University. In 1999, Darrell started as a faculty member in Chemical Engineering at Penn State University, where he is now a Distinguished Professor.

Dr. Velegol built his career in teaching and in the research field of colloidal systems. He has published over 100 articles, especially in colloidal active matter and chemically-driven transport, and has written books including “Colloidal Systems”. For his work in dynamic colloidal systems, Dr. Velegol was elected to be a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in 2011.

In 2013 Dr. Velegol co-taught a MOOC in “Creativity, Innovation, and Change”, and he became a student of innovation processes, which he came to see as a type of process manufacturing. In 2017 he started the Knowlecular Processes Company, which specializes in strategies that enable innovation processes to be of higher speed and value. He has also published articles in this area of “Econochemical Engineering”.

Dr. Velegol has been active in his church in State College, PA, serving as Elder and participating in many church activities for the community. Darrell and his wife, Dr. Stephanie Velegol, have two daughters Lauren (age 17 in 2021) and Sabrina (15).