Hurricane Katrina shaped this wetland ecologist’s life and work

academic: Relating to school, classes or things taught by teachers in formal institutes of learning (such as a college). 

application: A particular use or function of something. 

climate: The weather conditions that typically exist in one area, in general, or over a long period. 

climate change: Long-term, significant change in the climate of Earth. It can happen naturally or in response to human activities, including the burning of fossil fuels and clearing of forests. 

defense: (in biology) A natural protective action taken or chemical response that occurs when a species confronts predators or agents that might harm it.  

ecosystem: A group of interacting living organisms — including microorganisms, plants and animals — and their physical environment within a particular climate. Examples include tropical reefs, rainforests, alpine meadows and polar tundra. The term can also be applied to elements that make up some artificial environment, such as a company, classroom or the internet. 

environment: The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or the process and the condition those things create. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature and humidity (or even the placement of things in the vicinity of an item of interest). 

environmental science: The study of ecosystems to help identify environmental problems and possible solutions. Environmental science can bring together many fields including physics, chemistry, biology and oceanography to understand how ecosystems function and how humans can coexist with them in harmony. People who work in this field are known as environmental scientists. 

field: An area of study, as in: Her field of research is biology. Also a term to describe a real-world environment in which some research is conducted, such as at sea, in a forest, on a mountaintop or on a city street. It is the opposite of an artificial setting, such as a research laboratory.  

football field: The field on which athletes play American football. Owing to its size and familiarity, many people use this field as a measure of how big something is. A regulation field (including its end zones) runs 360 feet (almost 110 meters) long and 160 feet (almost 49 meters) wide. 

force: Some outside influence that can change the motion of an object, hold objects close to one another, or produce motion or stress in a stationary object. 

forest: An area of land covered mostly with trees and other woody plants. 

generation: A group of individuals (in any species) born at about the same time or that are regarded as a single group. Your parents belong to one generation of your family, for example, and your grandparents to another. Similarly, you and everyone within a few years of your age across the planet are referred to as belonging to a particular generation of humans. The term also is sometimes extended to year classes of other animals or to types of inanimate objects (such as electronics or automobiles). 

graduate school: A university program that offers advanced degrees, such as a Master’s or PhD degree. It’s called graduate school because it is started only after someone has already graduated from college (usually with a four-year degree). 

hurricane: A tropical cyclone that occurs in the Atlantic Ocean and has winds of 119 kilometers (74 miles) per hour or greater. When such a storm occurs in the Pacific Ocean, people refer to it as a typhoon. 

imposter syndrome: A form of self-doubt that people sometimes experience. An inner voice seems to tell them they aren’t up to managing what others assume they can do. Affected people may think of themselves as a fraud who is faking it. Even well-trained and successful people may at times feel this way. 

major: (in education) A subject that a student chooses as their area of focus in college, such as: chemistry, English literature, German, journalism, pre-medicine, electrical engineering or elementary education. 

mangrove: A type of shrub or tree that lives mostly in coastal swamps and usually has long, tangled, above-ground roots. 

Ph.D.: (also known as a doctorate) A type of advanced degree offered by universities — typically after five or six years of study — for work that creates new knowledge. People qualify to begin this type of graduate study only after having first completed a college degree (a program that typically takes four years of study). 

population: (in biology) A group of individuals (belonging to the same species) that lives in a given area. 

salt: A compound made by combining an acid with a base (in a reaction that also creates water). The ocean contains many different salts — collectively called “sea salt.” Common table salt is a made of sodium and chlorine. 

sea: An ocean (or region that is part of an ocean). Unlike lakes and streams, seawater — or ocean water — is salty. 

sea level: The overall level of the ocean over the entire globe when all tides and other short-term changes are averaged out. 

social: (adj.) Relating to gatherings of people; a term for animals (or people) that prefer to exist in groups. (noun) A gathering of people, for instance those who belong to a club or other organization, for the purpose of enjoying each other’s company. 

social science: A research field that deals with human society, with organizations and institutions that people join or work for, and with relationships between individuals and those organizations. Economics and political science are subsets of social science that deal with how groups of people organize and make important decisions for the good of society. People who work in all of these fields are known as social scientists.  

species: A group of similar organisms capable of producing offspring that can survive and reproduce. 

storm surge: A storm-generated rise in water above normal tidal level. In most cases, the largest cause of storm surge is strong onshore winds in a hurricane or tropical storm. 

syndrome: Two or more symptoms that together characterize a particular disease, disorder or social condition. 

system: A network of parts that together work to achieve some function. For instance, the blood, vessels and heart are primary components of the human body’s circulatory system. Similarly, trains, platforms, tracks, roadway signals and overpasses are among the potential components of a nation’s railway system. System can even be applied to the processes or ideas that are part of some method or ordered set of procedures for getting a task done. 

undergrad: Short for undergraduate, which is a student at a two- or four-year college. 

wetland: As the name implies, this is a low-lying area of land either soaked or covered with water much of the year. It hosts plants and animals adapted to live in, on or near water. 

wood: A porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees, shrubs and other woody plants.