When Luminex customers in Europe, the Middle East, India, or Africa have technical questions about their instruments, they may get help from Wojciech Swidzinski. As Senior Field Applications Specialist, EMEIA, he helps train new customers and solves problems for existing customers. He earned his master of sciences in engineering in biotechnology from Warsaw University for Life Sciences and joined Luminex in 2015.
Q: What are your responsibilities at Luminex?
A: I’m the technical liaison for customers. In the field, I’m the person who knows the most about our assays, our kits, and maintenance procedures for our instruments and I use that to assist customers. I provide help with training and validation as well as troubleshooting their problems. Field applications specialists are involved before, during, and after sales, so we deal with the whole process.
Q: What did you do before this job?
A: I joined from a distributor of Luminex products called Copernicus Diagnostics in Poland.
Q: What drew you to Luminex?
A: I was actually not looking for a new job; I was happy at the distributor company. But if you’re working in a smaller market like Poland, there is not a lot of opportunity to grow. Luminex was interested in hiring me, and there was more opportunity there. The decision to leave my native Poland was difficult, but I’d rather regret things I did than things I didn’t do. So I consulted my wife, packed up our household and our cats and moved to the Netherlands. Luminex helped a lot with the transition, and having worked for the distributor, I already knew the whole team here, so adjusting was quite easy.
Q: If you weren’t in field applications at Luminex, where would you be?
A: During my studies, I started working as a delivery driver for a wine company. Eventually, I started helping out during tastings and learned that I could distinguish lots of flavors. I really got into it, even starting up my own company to do wine training and events and to introduce people to the culture of wine. I could imagine myself moving to a wine-producing country, maybe working in a winery.
Q: If you could solve any clinical or genetic challenge, what would it be?
A: I would like to be able to create vaccines for neglected diseases – like malaria or tropical diseases that strike developing countries.
Q: What is something about you that no one at Luminex knows?
A: I talk a lot, so everyone knows everything about me! Truly, if I enter the building, everyone knows it because they can hear me coming.
Q: What is your favorite thing to do on the weekend?
A: Since moving to the Netherlands, I’ve discovered the passion for boating. If I have a chance, I’ll rent a small boat and take a few friends out on the canal and have the fun of steering the boat.
