Welcome our fresh new graduate, Ailish Cobban who loves a Colin the Caterpillar cake
We recently caught up with Ailish Cobban, our new graduate consultant who was already familiar with the GoBe team. Ailish strived to find a career that would benefit the environment and make a positive impact.
Ailish started her environmental journey wanting to get into marine biology and it was during her time at university that she saw that the renewables industry was growing massively.
“I wanted to go into consultancy as I wanted to do something that felt positive rather than contributing to something negative.”
Ailish already found herself familiar with the GoBe team before she started as she collaborated with GoBe and Dr Mark Hartl for her dissertation at Heriot-Watt University. GoBe proposed a list of projects for students to choose from, leading her to investigate the effects of trace metal contaminants (arsenic, chromium, DBT, TBT) in the Humber region and how changing legislation may impact renewable energy projects now and in the future. She also investigated if sediment contamination varied spatially or temporally.
GoBe invited Ailish to visit the Glasgow office whilst she was completing her dissertation and had the opportunity to meet some of the team – this was before she knew she was going to be part of it of course. It was only a week after Ailish completed her dissertation that she joined the GoBe team. She clearly made a great impression! And whilst she had officially joined the Project Delivery Team, she has also been adopted by the Physical Processes Team thanks to working with them on her dissertation.
Ailish has had a busy year as she also got the opportunity to go on a university trip to Malaysia where she stayed on Bidong Island and went snorkelling. She surveyed the coral reefs and helped with a restoration project and also got to swim with sharks and stringrays – accidently!
Ailish says “I am looking forward to hopefully having a long career in consultancy and working within the renewable energy sector provides the opportunity to do something positive. For now, I am enjoying gaining as much experience and knowledge possible and looking forward to getting more as time goes on.”
Renewables are not the only projects Ailish is busy with as in her spare time she finds herself baking cakes for her friends and family, with her ultimate goal of mastering the classic Colin the Caterpillar cake – a childhood favourite.