Centralight

CMU Today Giant impact on shrimp business Philip Hertzler's research has the power to transform the shrimp industry. The CMU biology professor – using CMU's new laser scanning confocal microscope – is focusing on the selective breeding of shrimp to help the industry produce better shrimp. Retired Peace Corps volunteer Michael Lavoie shares a statement of gratitude with CMU President George E. Ross and his wife, Elizabeth G. Ross. Honoring two anniversaries The Peace Corps volunteers stationed in the country of Burkina Faso had a lot to celebrate. The 50th anniversaries of the establishment of the Peace Corps and the independence of Burkina Faso were a few months apart. To honor the occasion, the Friends of Burkina Faso held celebratory events across the African nation. Central Michigan University joined in the festivities, recognizing the dual anniversaries and donating $1,000 to repair an ambulance in the commune of Dargo. Michael Lavoie, retired Peace Corps volunteer and president of the Friends of Burkina Faso, says the words of the wife of the Colonel Ouedraogo, Great Mayor of Dargo, struck him, "She said, 'I think it's a great thing because it will save lives. '" "It was the right thing to do," says CMU President George E. Ross. "This is a small world. I say to my students all the time on this campus, 'We're a small planet, and we have to experience other people, other cultures. freedom, the ideas of loving and caring are universal ideas." • ' The ideas of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization recently awarded Hertzler an AU $450,000 grant over three years, marking the first time CSIRO has awarded projects to groups outside of Australia. According to Hertzler, the shrimp industry is looking to maximize its economic potential, just as the beef, pork and chicken industries have used traditional breeding methods to improve the quality and production of their animals. "This makes a huge economic impact," says Hertzler, who is working with his students to isolate genes from shrimp that are known to be involved in germ cell specification in other animals. Hertzler's research is part of a larger collaborative project among the University of Queensland, University of Newcastle, Simon Fraser University (Canada), CMU and CSIRO partners. • Student entrepreneurs win start-up funds Two CMU students think they can change the way people pay for merchandise and services, and they recently won $30,000 to see if they're right. Entrepreneurship majors Daniel Pearson and Tyler Gostinger received first place in the College of Business Administration's inaugural New Venture Competition with their business plan for HybridPay, which will allow consumers to integrate multiple credit and rewards accounts onto one simple and secure smart phone application. "We're going to use the $30,000 prize money to start and develop our application, our software, " says Gostinger. "In our projections, we have for the next three months the development stage," " says Pearson. "After that, hopefully we do a soft launch here on campus and make sure the system works right. After that, we're off to the races. A total of $45,000 was awarded in the competition, with graduate students Jason and Mick Baird winning the second-place prize of $10,000 and Benjamin Prentiss, '10, and biology student Tony Johnson receiving the third-place prize of $5,000. • alumni.cmich.edu/centralight for more 2 centralight summer '11

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