Assistant Professor Hyeok Choi's team has been awarded a joint grant of $175,541 by National Institutes of Health (NIH) for 2012-2015 and $386,189 by National Science Foundation (NSF) for 2013-2016 for a project entitled "In Situ Sensing System for the Selective and Sensitive Detection of Biological Toxins in Harmful Algal Blooms." Along with Prof. Hyeok Choi as a lead principal investigator, Prof. Sungyong Jung in Electrical Engineering at UT-Arlington is included in the team and two subcontracts are given to New Mexico State University and Virginia Tech. Due to the national importance of the environmental monitoring, the study is co-sponsored by NIH and NSF via the R01 research grant mechanism which is to support a discrete, specified, circumscribed project to be performed by the named investigator in an area representing his/her specific interest and competencies. The R01 is known as a highly competitive and prestigious grant. His research team will monitor the level of microcystins (one of the most powerful biological toxins) in-situ using an innovative wireless sensor network. The in situ wireless sensor network is able to monitor various toxins sustainably and responsively and communicate the information to remote authorities in real time for establishing an early warning system.