TROY - What's the next big thing for Michigan? The state's top researchers in the growth sectors of life science and energy will come together on Earth Day April 22.

Michigan's University Research Corridor (URC) and WWJ Newsradio 950 will bring together Michigan's key go-to people in energy innovation as well as life sciences, including leading researchers from Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University for "Sectors of Promise for the Michigan Economy: Energy & Life Sciences."

WWJ will broadcast live from the event, airing special coverage on the topic with interviews running throughout the day at 5:40 a.m. through 7:40 p.m. More information is available at www.urcmich.org and www.wwj.com.

The conference, 7:30 a.m.-noon, will be held at the MSU Management Education Center, 811 W. Square Lake Road, Troy, Michigan. The conference is free and open to the public but advanced registration is required: http://www.wwj.com/pages/4141295.php. For additional information, please call (248) 455-7360.

WWJ Technology Editor Matt Roush will be moderate two panel discussions outlining the sectors showing the most promise of growth, new businesses and new jobs for Michigan's economy.

Energy panelists will include Soji Adeleja, director of the MSU Land Policy Institute and a professor in the department of agricultural economics, geography, and community, agriculture, recreation and resource studies; Ann Marie Sastry, director of the energy systems engineering program at the U-M College of Engineering; and Jerry Ku, co-director of the Alternative Energy Technology Program at Wayne State University.

The life sciences panel will include Eva Feldman, U-M professor of neurology at the University of Michigan and director of the A. Alfred Taubman Medical Research Institute; MSU Associate Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Paul Hunt; and Albert King, Distinguished Professor and Chair of Biomedical Engineering at Wayne State.

The research universities, working together through the URC, are each leaders in different aspects of energy as well as life sciences research.

WWJ Newsradio 950 is owned and operated by CBS Radio, one of the largest major-market radio operators in the United States. A division of CBS Corp., CBS Radio operates 140 radio stations, the majority of which are in the nation's top 50 markets. CBS Radio also owns and operates WVMV-FM, WOMC-FM, WYCD-FM, and WXYT-FM/AM in Detroit.

For more on the URC, visit: www.urcmich.org

For more on WWJ, visit: www.wwj.com