Darrell Velegol attended West Virginia University for his BS in Chemical Engineering, and he earned his PhD in Chemical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in 1997 working with Professors John L. Anderson and Stephen Garoff. In 1998 Velegol won the American Chemical Society's LaMer Award for the best PhD in Colloid & Surface Science. He continued with a post-doc with Professor Fred Lanni of the CMU Biology Department. In June 1999 Velegol joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Penn State. Velegol won an NSF CAREER Award in 2000, and has continued to be funded by NSF, DOE, EPA, PRF, the Air Force, and other agencies for his work with colloidal forces, colloidal assembly, and colloidal motors. His research investigates the fabrication of colloidal assemblies and devices, with a specialty in understanding the interparticle forces and sorting processes. Velegol is a member of ACS, AIChE, AAAS, and ASEE.