Saroj Kafle, who earned his PhD in organic chemistry from UMSL in 2023, works as a process chemist for the API Innovation Center. He uses organic synthesis to develop active pharmaceutical ingredients, the components of medicine that provide therapeutic benefit. (Photo by Derik Holtmann)

Hometown: Bhaktapur, Nepal

Degree: PhD in organic chemistry, 2023

Current Position: Process chemist at API Innovation Center

Fun Fact: Kafle loves outdoor activities such as biking, hiking and camping, especially at Rend Lake in Illinois.

Saroj Kafle, in a twist of fate, finds himself working in the same lab where he once toiled as a doctoral student, more than two years after earning his PhD from the University of Missouri–St. Louis.

The second-floor space in the Research Building has undergone a few upgrades since then. It reopened in February as the home to the research and development laboratory for the API Innovation Center, a nonprofit dedicated to improving American national health security by bolstering the supply of market-competitive, commercial U.S.-made active pharmaceutical ingredients, or APIs. The renovated lab includes the installation of state-of-the-art continuous flow chemical reactors that Kafle, a process chemist, and his colleagues use for organic synthesis in the development of APIs, which are the components of medicines that provide therapeutic benefit. Their task is to perfect the recipes that allow for scaled-up production in the most cost-effective and sustainable ways possible, and Kafle is excited by the work.

“This is my happy place,” he says. “I love to come here every single day.”

Kafle’s interest in chemistry, going back to his days growing up in his native Nepal, came from a desire to learn how it could be used to create remedies for disease. He earned a master’s degree in chemistry from Tribhuvan University in Kirtipur, just southwest of the capital city of Kathmandu. There are few doctoral programs in Nepal and, with only a small pharmaceutical industry, limited career paths for chemists beyond becoming a high school science teacher. So, Kafle knew he would have to go abroad to chase his professional dreams. Kafle began taking classes at UMSL in the fall of 2017 and was ultimately accepted into the lab of Professor Christopher Spilling in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

“I got a chance to build a foundation in chemistry and organic synthesis, including how to set up a reaction, how to analyze the reaction and purify the compounds,” says Kafle, who synthesized compounds that were eventually shared with collaborators and used to test their potential in combating different pathogens, including mycobacterium tuberculosis.

After graduating in May of 2023, Kafle landed a job as a chemist at Eurofins EAG St. Louis. By then, Spilling – who in 2020 became UMSL’s vice chancellor for research and economic and community development – had started discussing the potential partnership with the newly launched API Innovation Center, which was finalized early in 2024. Spilling told Kafle about the opportunity to join API’s growing team of scientists, and Kafle was hired that April.

“We have two senior process chemists who are experts in this field, and I’m always learning new things from them,” Kafle says. “We’re growing rapidly, and every single week, we feel like we’re making progress.”

This story was originally published in the fall 2025 issue of UMSL Magazine. If you have a story idea for UMSL Magazine, email magazine@umsl.edu.