Chromatography Forum of Delaware Valley Dal Nogare Award

The Chromatography Forum of the Delaware Valley awards an individual who is an outstanding scientist in the field of chromatography, the Dal Nogare Award. The awardee is selected based on their contributions to the fundamental understanding of the chromatographic process. The 2025 awardee is Dr. Terry Berger. Dr. Berger’s well-documented technical contributions to advance the field of SFC to the point where it has been successfully commercialized both by Berger Scientific and subsequently by Aurora, and then further developed after the acquisition by Agilent demonstrated a tenacity and absolute conviction that SFC would be a commercially viable and important technical capability for a wide variety of industries. Dr. Berger has published over 90-peer-reviewed articles with the vast majority involving fundamental aspects of SFC. Key contributions have included the development of effective flow and pressure control systems for SFC instruments, identification of methods to improve chromatographic efficiency in SFC separations, and the study of unique instrumental broadening effects that differ from LC separations. During his career Terry Berger was awarded 32 patents, with a primary focus on SFC and most recently, preparative scale SFC. The reduction in solvent waste that can be achieved by using SFC over normal phase LC is especially significant at the preparative scale—a sustainable technology.

After being informed about the winning of the award in April 2024, Dr. Terry Berger passed away in early May. The speakers in the 2025 Dal Nogare award symposium were chosen by Terry as significant to his career. Speakers include: Christina Kraml from Lotus Separations in Princeton, NJ; Bill Farrell, Virscidian, Inc., Cary, NC; Jeff Caldwell, Princeton Chromatography, Cranberry, NJ and Professor Caroline West, Universtie d’Orleans, Orleans, France.