Jason Straka

Peterborough, Ontario
Biology

Jason Straka’s exposure to the ground-breaking research taking place at Trent happened early in life when he began volunteering at age 13 with Biology professor Dr. Erica Nol. When it came time for Jason to choose a university, he decided to continue his relationship with Trent and enrol in the Biology program.

Now as a new graduate of the program, Jason looks back on an incredible four years. During his time at Trent, he has been involved with a lot of different groups and activities, including the Trent University Jazz Band and the Biology Undergraduate Society executive. He was also editor for the Journal of Undergraduate Studies.

Jason also has a passion for wild spaces and the living things that inhabit these spaces. To satisfy this passion, he grows grapefruit, kiwi and avocados from seeds during the school year. He also took advantage of some amazing hands-on research opportunities in the summer, as a recipient of two NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRAs). The first was with Dr. Gary Burness, working on the breeding biology, ecology and physiology of Eider Ducks and Black Guillemots at a field station off Southampton Island in Nunavut, and the second was with Dr. Paul Hebert at the Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding at the University of Guelph. During his summer working with Dr. Hebert, Jason travelled between National Parks in Ontario and Alberta, collecting and identifying as many invertebrates as possible for the Barcode of Life Project.

“Both of my USRAs provided terrific amounts of field experience and were a good introduction to thinking about the technical issues to doing science – something that is extremely difficult to teach in the classroom using standard lectures and laboratories,” Jason says. “The long hours and hard work involved in these experiences has really helped me get through my fourth year honour’s thesis.”

Continuing his learning this summer, Jason is studying the ecology of nesting songbirds and invertebrate communities in Ivvavik National Park in the Yukon. “This work will be extremely important because climate change is likely to dramatically affect the functioning of many ecosystems around the Arctic,” he says. “This will also have direct implications for the First Nations people who rely on that environment, some of whom will be helping me with my work this summer. During my brief career in research I’ve been extremely impressed with the quality of research being done in Canada and locations like Ivvavik offer amazing potential.”

Equipped with his Trent degree, Jason next plans to attend graduate school to further explore the ecology and evolution of plants, insects, birds and humans. His goal is to continue doing well-designed research in the hope of providing a link between good science and some of the many disciplines he is interested in. “I want my work to be worthwhile from the perspective of humans and the environment,” he says.