{"id":92,"date":"2026-06-16T01:10:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T01:10:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/?p=92"},"modified":"2026-06-16T01:10:39","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T01:10:39","slug":"meet-aubree-cobos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/2026\/06\/16\/meet-aubree-cobos\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Aubree Cobos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BioResource\u00a0Research Major,\u00a0Water Resources\u00a0option\u00a0with minors in Chemistry and Statistics\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image of Aubree Cobos presenting her thesis work at a conference.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Question: So, my first question for you is; what can you tell me about yourself and what drew you to the major?<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell I really like to be outside and I had a really hard time choosing majors but I worked a field work job this summer with someone\u00a0that\u00a0was a\u00a0BioResource\u00a0Research student\u00a0[Jack Schultz]\u00a0and he brought up\u00a0like\u00a0\u2018it\u2019s interdisciplinary and you can\u00a0combine\u00a0all these components\u2019 because I had been in engineering and then environmental science and then botany and\u00a0I\u00a0kind\u00a0of\u00a0wanted like a mix of all three.\u00a0So\u00a0then\u00a0when I heard about\u00a0it\u00a0I was like \u2018this is great\u2019 because I can\u00a0kind of\u00a0combine\u00a0like\u00a0the best parts of each of them into my own thesis.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Question: Can you tell me a bit about your project and what you would like the average person to understand about your research?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, okay so my\u00a0project\u2019s\u00a0on water temperatures in streams and then DO, which\u00a0is dissolved\u00a0oxygen, after a\u00a0wild fire.\u00a0So\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0looking at the change in those metrics after it burns and if\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0like\u00a0harmful for fish\u00a0populations or aquatic species\u00a0in those environments.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0also looking…\u00a0across different regions to see if some regions are more\u00a0susceptible\u00a0to fire than others.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How did you get connected with that project?<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo I looked for like forestry faculty members because I am really\u00a0interested\u00a0in\u00a0any\u00a0forestry related research, I really like the forest ecology side of things, and then\u00a0Wanda<\/a>\u00a0had recommended\u00a0Kevin Bladon<\/a>, and he\u00a0is in FES\u00a0(or\u00a0Forest Ecosystems in Society), and so I met with him and some of his post-docs, and they kind of laid out a group of projects that I\u00a0could\u00a0choose from and that one looked\u00a0really\u00a0interesting because that one was very like data analysis heavy. I really liked the\u00a0statistical analysis that was\u00a0kind of like\u00a0\u2018we have these three years of stream data with the burned and unburned\u00a0sites\u00a0and you can kind of do whatever you want\u2019 so I was very hands-on in terms of the data.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0like\u00a0yes\u00a0you had a faculty in mind who had some projects lined up, but you really got to\u00a0pick and choose\u00a0and semi-modify\u00a0the project\u00a0for what you wanted to do?<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, so they have like a wildfire and water security group, and then like this massive set of data and were like \u2018you can\u00a0do organic\u00a0carbon, or pyrogenic carbon, or even design your own experiment\u2019 but then it was like, \u2018you want to write a paper you\u00a0should\u00a0probably\u00a0do something more data oriented\u2019 so I\u00a0kind of\u00a0had some\u00a0flexibility with\u00a0what I could do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image of Aubree Cobos performing field work.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Question: What do the next steps in continuing this work look like? Is this something you are thinking of continuing yourself?<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell right now I am midway through, so in terms of the actual project mostly just like\u00a0kind of wrapping\u00a0up the results and the\u00a0stats\u00a0stuff because\u00a0it\u2019s like\u00a0very heavy on the coding\u00a0portion.\u00a0In terms of going forward,\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0like to publish this paper which would be really\u00a0fun as\u00a0like a first-author publication. I have a year or so of writing to do. And then going\u00a0forward,\u00a0I\u2019d\u00a0like\u00a0to like\u00a0continue\u00a0a stream\u00a0analysis for\u00a0maybe a\u00a0PhD\u00a0but something\u00a0maybe with\u00a0more\u00a0USGS<\/a>\u00a0sites or something broader than just like the PNW.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So basically, this\u00a0project, when it wraps\u00a0up\u00a0will be\u00a0pretty much concluded, but\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0interested in\u00a0pursuing further education around this field.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYeah, anything forest ecology, but looking at like\u00a0some of\u00a0the stream data, there\u2019s some cool questions that I think would make a good\u00a0dissertation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Question: Do you have any advice for students considering or recently joining the major?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell\u00a0I would say\u00a0definitely go\u00a0with a topic\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0passionate\u00a0about. I think if\u00a0you\u2019re\u00a0stuck with for two years doing research on something you\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0care about\u00a0it would get very monotonous so like\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0slack on like the prep that goes behind the BRR project. I got kind of lucky in that I found really good faculty and\u00a0secondary mentors and\u00a0they had like a project that worked out for me, but if you kind of go in blind you might not enjoy it as much as\u00a0if it\u2019s\u00a0something\u00a0you\u2019re passionate about.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically, tailoring the project\u00a0that\u00a0you are going to do around\u00a0things\u00a0that\u00a0you are\u00a0actually\u00a0interested in.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes, as opposed to like checking a box\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0like \u2018oh I did my thesis\u2019\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0like something you care about.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is such a big project that having an\u00a0inherent\u00a0passion for it is going to make the experience much more enjoyable.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbsolutely, yeah.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BioResource\u00a0Research Major,\u00a0Water Resources\u00a0option\u00a0with minors in Chemistry and Statistics\u00a0\u00a0 Question: So, my first question for you is; what can you tell me about yourself and what drew you to the major?\u00a0 \u201cWell I really like to be outside and I had a really hard time choosing majors but I worked a field work job this summer […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15174,"featured_media":93,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,3],"tags":[23,31,30,32,29],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brr-students","category-research","tag-chemistry","tag-forest-health","tag-statistics","tag-stream-health","tag-water-resources","has-thumbnail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/osu-wams-blogs-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs.dir\/8977\/files\/2026\/06\/image.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15174"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions\/95"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/bioresource\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}