Assistant Biology Professor Eric Smith received a $725,000 grant from the National Science foundation to catalogue new species in Indonesia, according to a press release Thursday..

Smith begins work later this year as the lead investigator with a team of researchers, which will include UTA students. The grant funds the project for three years.

Alumnus Michael Harvey, now a Broward College associate professor, will join Smith as co-principal investigator.

Harvey and Smith traveled to Indonesia in 1996 while attending UTA to study amphibians and reptiles. The two published scientific papers about the new species they discovered.

We calculated we were getting a new species of reptile or amphibian every four hours, Smith said in the release. So thats how much work the area needed. Its a huge place and it will take a long time to explore what is there.

Some of whatever the research team finds in the upcoming trip will come to UTA for further study.

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Biology professor gets grant to catalogue Indonesian species