The Stephen Dal Nogare award is one of the oldest and most prestigious awards given in chromatography. Since 1972, it has been presented by the Chromatography Forum of the Delaware Valley, usually at the annual Pittsburgh Conference. Little has been written about Stephen Dal Nogare "the man" or his contributions to scientific knowledge, including his unique contributions to separations science. This paper describes his scientific career and how it has influenced the practice of chromatography.

The Chromatography Forum of the Delaware Valley is one of the oldest chromatography discussion groups in the world. It was founded in 1965 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The purpose of the organization is "to foster a spirit of goodwill among those engaged in chromatographic work, to promote their educational and professional development, and to assume a place in the general scheme of professional societies by participating with them in the exchange of information of discussion of mutual interest."

Previous Recipients*

Stephen Dal Nogare was born on July 23, 1922, in Marostica Vicenza, Italy (a medieval walled city near Venice). He came to the United States as a child. Stephen received the B.S. degree (Phi Beta Kappa; student address: "The Fifth Estate") in chemistry from Beloit College, Beloit, Wisconsin, in 1944, then entered the University of Wisconsin at Madison where he worked with Dr. Henry A. Schuette (1885–1978) for both the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. Stephen received the M.S. degree in 1946 (thesis: "Studies on Elm and Sabadila Seed Oils") and the Ph.D. degree in 1947 (dissertation: "A Study of Chromatography Applied to the Higher Fatty Acid Methyl Esters"). After graduation, he joined the Plastics Department at DuPont, Wilmington, Delaware. He temporarily left DuPont in 1949 to accept a position as postdoctoral fellow with Prof. N. Howell Furman at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey. (Furman won the 1948 ACS Analytical Chemistry award). He returned to DuPont as a research chemist in the Polychemicals Department in 1950. In 1956, he became a supervisor and, in 1958, was promoted to research associate. From 1961 to 1967, he held the position of senior research associate.

In 1962, Dal Nogare coauthored with Richard S. Juvet., Jr one of the first books about gas chromatography (GC), Gas Liquid Chromatography: Theory and Practice. In 1965, he received the ACS Award in Chromatography and Electrophoresis and also the Lab Line Award in Chromatography at the Detroit ACS national meeting. Steve also initiated the first ACS Short Course in GC in 1966.

In 1968, Dal Nogare decided to enter academic life and accepted a position as Professor of Chemistry at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Blacksburg, Virginia. It was during his first year as a professor of chemistry that he died. Although his career in chemistry was short, he was recognized nationally.

One could best summarize Dal Nogare's contributions to the field of chromatography in the following sequence: he first studied GC instrument design and two of his co-workers helped construct his first gas chromatograph at DuPont. One co-worker, Dr. Frank Martinez, later founded the F&M Corporation (which later became Hewlett-Packard and later still, Agilent) in 1959. Steve was responsible for the interpretation of the theory of GC showing the importance of phase ratio β on resolution Rs and efficiency N. He investigated the optimization of column parameters and was a pioneer in the area of linear temperature programming and fast GC. He authored the Bi-Annual Reviews on Gas Chromatography for Analytical Chemistry from 1960 to 1966 and was a member of the advisory board of Analytical Chemistry until his death in 1968.