Award Winner

In the 1960s, when chromatography was just emerging as a commercial application, Walter Supina and Nicholas Pelick formed Supelco, working out of a small garage in central Pennsylvania. The business began manufacturing packed gas chromatography columns and in the 1970s moved on to glass capillary columns. As Supelco grew, Supina and Pelick became pioneers in serving customers with the consumables-the columns, standards, reagents, and accessories-needed to exploit the power and versatility of this burgeoning analytical technique.

Supelco’s growth followed the trajectory of the expanding chromatography field. The company’s many firsts to the market were highlighted by innovations around particles, columns, surface chemistry, and devices that solved particular analytical challenges faced by customers. The extensive innovations developed at Supelco sprang from Supina and Pelick’s passion for the customer and from their technical leadership. Their legacy lives on today as the Supelco brand of MilliporeSigma. The life science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, operates as MilliporeSigma in the United States and Canada.