Distinguished Engineer Citations

 

Mark Darby

 

Distinguished Engineer

2026

 

Degree

B.S. Chemical Engineering - Texas Tech University 1980

Citation

Mark L. Darby has spent his entire career in Process Control and Automation, an interest that was fostered at Texas Tech. Today, Mark and his wife, Cheryl, manage their own consulting company, CMiD Solutions.

Mark grew up in Dallas, graduating from Richardson High School in 1975. He attended Texas Lutheran College and took courses in pre-engineering and learned his interests lay in Chemistry and Math. He entered the Chemical Engineering program at Texas Tech University and graduated in 1980 with a B.S. degree.  Initially planning to attend graduate school, he instead took the opportunity to join Setpoint, Inc., a newly formed company in Houston specializing in the burgeoning field of computer control.

At Setpoint, Mark implemented control projects around the world. Mark and Cheryl, as part of a team of five, moved to Leiden, The Netherlands in 1993 to open Setpoint Europe to better serve European customers. One of Mark’s focus areas was coordinating technology development between a recently acquired Dutch company and the Houston office in the rapidly expanding technology of Model Predictive Control. In 1996 Setpoint, Inc. was purchased by Aspen Technology. Aspen also purchased Setpoint’s main competitor in computer control, Dynamic Matrix Control Corporation. Mark returned to the states to help manage the transition, first as a Director, then as VP of the Control and Optimization Division. Mark then chose to return to a technical role and served as a Director of software development.

In 2002, Mark took a leave of absence following the adoption of their daughter. Not in a hurry to return, he extended his leave and took two graduate courses at the University of Houston. What started off as just taking a couple of courses led Mark to enter the PhD program in the Dept. of Chemical Engineering, with research in Process Control.  Graduating in 2008, he decided to strike out on his own, forming CMiD Solutions, where his previous industry contacts led to a steady stream of work.

Mark maintains contact with several universities and continues to write articles and serve on PhD Committees.  Coming full circle, he was given the opportunity to teach the undergraduate Control Course at the University of Houston. In 2024, Mark was named to Control Magazine’s Process Automation Hall of Fame.  He currently serves on the External Advisory Board of Tech’s Department of Chemical Engineering. 

Mark and Cheryl volunteer with the Lone Star College System, with a particular interest in supporting first generation college students.  Mark and Cheryl have one daughter, Destini, and two grandkids, Tristan and Astrid.  They enjoy traveling and the outdoors, where they camp and teach for Texas Parks and Wildlife.