St. Cloud State University alumnus Raj Bhandari ’08 had his company, Sciencix, recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration as the 2023 Small Business Exporter of the Year in March. Bhandari, who earned a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and a minor in Biology from SCSU in 2008, is the sole owner and president of Sciencix.
This prestigious award is given out once each year by the U.S. Small Business Administration to a small business that exemplifies an impressive increase in company exports. Specifically, with the use of “$24,000 in SBA State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) grant funding” Sciencix boosted exports to a point where they now account for one-third of Sciencix’s total sales, a 10% increase from their 2020 export amount.
After completing his undergraduate studies at SCSU, Bhandari went on to obtain his doctorate degree from South Dakota State University. Sciencix is a manufacturer of high-performance liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry parts. These parts are used in drug testing, contamination analysis, pesticide detection, and other applications.
