Niklaus Gerber (8 June 1850 – 9 February 1914) was a Swiss dairy chemist and industrialist.
He attended the University of Bern and University of Zurich, studied chemistry in Paris and Munich and spent 2 years at the Swiss-American Milk Co. in Little Falls, New York.
At this time, the quality of raw milk was poor due to lack of hygiene.
In 1892, Dr. Gerber developed a method of analyzing fat content in milk in a relatively fast, simple and reliable manner for the time.
[2] Although the method was originally developed for use only by United Dairies, Dr. Gerber began to sell the equipment to milk processors globally and created a separate company to commercialise the Gerber Method.