At Luminex, we work closely with corporate partners and distributors to make sure that our technologies are as robust and useful as possible for a broad range of applications. An essential element of that is offering engineering expertise to help with training, troubleshooting, and more. Brent Hay, Service Partner Channel Engineer, is one of our globe-trotting experts delivering these top-notch solutions. The Texas native joined Luminex in 2007 and earned his bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Texas A&M University.
Q: What are your responsibilities at Luminex?
A: As a Service Partner Channel Engineer, I am responsible for managing the Luminex Partner/Distributor Training Program by providing hardware training, diagnostic aid, troubleshooting, and current product related updates. I also offer hardware training to field service engineers. If there’s a problem with the machine, we can fly out to help work on it and train engineers who work for the partners or distributors, so they feel comfortable working on the machines.
Q: How much do you travel for that work?
A: There are two of us, and we stay busy supporting the Licensed Technologies Group. I fly more than 100,000 miles a year. A couple of weeks ago I was in Santiago, Chile, and my colleague was in India.
Q: How did you first get interested in a career in science?
A: I had a really strict teacher who gave me the only C I ever got in high school. That drove me insane, but it also made me want to excel at science. In college, I focused on microbiology because I was considering a career in medicine.
Q: What did you do before this job?
A: My first job after college was as a medical technologist, working as a lab supervisor at a clinic where I supported 50 or 60 physicians. Later, I worked as a field applications specialist at one of Luminex’s partners. One of the Luminex people saw me in the field and said, ‘You should come work for us.’ This company is cool because our technology has the potential to directly affect patient treatment.
Q: If you could solve any clinical or genetic challenge, what would it be?
A: I would love to see a cure for cancer in my lifetime. Not even for a specific type, but if we can knock out one, that would open the door for others.
Q: If you weren’t a training specialist at Luminex, where would you be?
A: I would probably still gravitate toward traveling internationally and teaching. Or maybe I would have been a national park ranger.
Q: What is something about you that no one at Luminex knows?
A: I am an Eagle Scout, Ironman triathlete, and cancer survivor. All of these taught me to set goals and overcome life’s obstacles.
Q: What is a particularly memorable project you worked on at Luminex?
A: In 2009, I was able to help with Luminex’s H1N1 outbreak response for Texas. I received a very nice thank you letter from the Commissioner of the Texas Department of Health for the company’s efforts to help with the public health emergency.
