Lansing Regional Chamber Economic Club Meeting
Terry Grimm
Niowave
October 29, 2015
This month the Lansing
Regional Chamber has invited Terry Grimm, the founder and President of Niowave
to speak at the Economic Club meeting.
Niowave is a company that is using new technology to spur economic
development in the area. It will be
interesting to hear what Mr. Grimm has to say!!
It was fun to meet up with
old friends and some fans of my “The Bleacher Denizen” high school sports blog
as well as bankers and others my company, T.A. Forsberg, Inc. works with.
Deborah Muchmore, from
Kandler Reed Khoury & Muchmore, started the Program by getting everyone to their seats. We had a fine lunch of roast beef, roasted
potatoes and carrots.
After lunch, she spoke a bit
about the complex technology that Mr. Grimm was going to discuss during his
talk. She then introduced Jim Robinson,
the CEO of Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan, who is also the Chair of the
Mid-Michigan Business Travel Coalition.
Mr. Robinson let us know that
there were some proposals from American Airlines to add some direct routes from
Lansing to Washington, D.C. and to Chicago.
They were hoping to have a “quick decision” from the regulators
regarding the approval of these routes. They
are hoping to have the decision by the end of 2015.
He thanked the Lansing
Community for sending 1200 letters of support for this proposal.
He also mentioned that there
will soon be service to Cancun from Lansing.
Jim Robinson introduced Mark
J. Burzych, an Attorney from Fahey Schulz Burzych Rhodes.
He briefly discussed his firm’s
practice of helping businesses interact with regulatory agencies to acquire
needed licenses and permits. He pointed
out that his firm has been successful and grown from four to sixteen attorneys
since they opened.
Mr. Burzych introduced Terry
Grimm to the audience. He spoke of Mr.
Grimm’s education as a scientist and praised Mr. Grimm for his ability to deal
with non-scientists. (He used the
Sheldon character from “The Big Bang Theory” to contrast with Mr. Grimm’s
ability to deal with average people.) He
finished up with a scientific pun (that I actually wish I had thought of first)
stating that like a proton, Mr. Grimm is always positive!
That was the beginning of a
bit of basic chemistry we needed to learn to understand what Mr. Grimm and
Niowave do.
Mr. Grimm’s goal was to teach
us how Niowave was going to add to the economic progress of the Lansing
area. To do so, he had to describe what
Niowave does so that bankers and other business people in the room (who are
typically not chemists and physicists) could understand their processes.
I took careful notes and
thought that I would try to relay Mr. Grimm’s thoughts, but I fear making a
mistake that might cause an amateur scientist to create a radiation hazard in
our area.
He spoke of the different
isotopes that could be used for the FRIB as opposed to the ones that Niowave
produces for the Health Care Industry.
The process involves
splitting Uranium (U-235) molecules to get unstable Molybdenum molecules. These are Mo-99 molecules (with 42 protons
and 57 neutrons) that are radioactive with a short half life. The Mo-99 shrinks down to nothing in about
two weeks.
This helps provide radiation
that can be used for Therapeutic and Diagnostic Imaging. Again, to promote the safety of mankind, I
will not attempt to understand these the way that Mr. Grimm (fortunately for
all of us) does!
He got to what the business
leaders in our community are eager to learn.
Every year, there are about
30 million uses of radiation for diagnostic purposes. At an average price of $340, this generates
$10 billion dollars.
At this point, no one in
America produces the Mo-99 needed for this.
It is all made in Europe and has to be shipped here. In 2012, the American Medical Isotopes
Production Act was passed to deal with this potential problem. If we don’t make this necessary material in
America, there is a chance that our supply of the Mo-99 could be interrupted.
This creates a huge market
for the Mo-99 in America. Michigan State
University, Niowave and Ionetix are all doing research related to this.
Niowave started up about 10
yards ago. At this point, they are the
only company with a license to make Mo-99.
Thus, they are in a business with a huge demand for their product.
Niowave has operated in the
old Walnut Elementary School near Downtown Lansing, but they have built a new
facility near the Lansing Airport where they will do most of their production.
Their goal is to make Lansing
the “Isotope Capital” of the world!
Niowave believes it can
probably add 200 to 300 jobs to the Lansing Economy in the next ten years. There will probably also be a lot of economic
gains for the region from related research done by MSU and other companies.
One reason Niowave located
near Lansing is because they can hire scientists with degrees from Michigan State
University and also because there are a lot of people in the area who are
experienced in manufacturing operations.
Thanks to Terry Grimm for
giving this fine presentation and also for all the growth he is providing for
our Lansing Area Economy!!
