Marine biology concerns the study of marine life in the ocean as well as in saltwater environments such as wetlands, estuaries, creeks, bays, and inlets. Marine biologists study plants, animals, and the water itself in order to better understand the relationship between organisms and their environment.

Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a unitary parliamentary republic within the European Union, located in Southern Europe. To the north, it borders France, Switzerland, Austria, and Slovenia along the Alps.

The PhD is a doctoral degree, specifically called a "doctor of philosophy" degree. This is misleading because PhD holders are not necessarily philosophers (unless they earned their degree in philosophy!). That said, PhD recipients are able to engage in thought experiments, reason about problems, and solve problems in sophisticated ways.