[1] Vogel was born in Beacon, New York, and educated there and in Poughkeepsie.
Vogel joined Duke University as an assistant professor in the Zoology department in 1966, and taught there for 40 years, eventually retiring as professor emeritus.
[3] Over the course of his professional career, Vogel, along with Stephen Wainwright and R. McNeil Alexander, played a fundamental role in the establishment of the discipline of biomechanics,[4] and was a prolific author of popular works on the intersection of physics and biology.
His research projects included studies of ventilation currents in prairie dog burrows, flight in tiny insects, leaf streamlining, air movement through feathery moth antennae, and the mechanics of jet propulsion in squid and scallops.
[5] Vogel died of cancer in Durham, North Carolina on November 24, 2015.