Ray Sierra
As a Mechanical Engineer, Ray studied to be a fluid mechanic (microfluidics) and to apply this knowledge to the most interesting machine: the human. Instead, he followed in his parents' footsteps and got into the delivery business (letter carriers and truck drivers).
As an instrument scientist within the Biology Department of LCLS, he is tasked with supporting the biological experiments at the CXI and MFX instruments, as well as overseeing the day-to-day User and operations support for the Sample Environment and Delivery (SED) group.
He continues to develop the MESH/coMESH system, a technique he developed, similar to electrospinning, in which a high voltage helps focus the biological sample slurries into the X-ray focus while minimizing sample consumption for serial femtosecond crystallography experiments.
He is interested in using this to mix higher viscosity media for time-resolved studies and also enabling new techniques to better pre-characterize and better diagnose a running experiment. He also moonlights characterizing extracellular vesicles, such as exosomes, with the Nanosight particle tracking instrument.
He can be found at the SLAC gym, Verve coffee, near the experimental halls, or rambling on to a colleague or summer students; but rarely at his desk. Ray enjoys long walks by the beampipes, dreaming about single particle imaging and electrosprays and delivering samples to experiments in need.
