Schreck continued his studies at Colorado State, receiving his Ph.D. in Physiology, Biophysics, and Fisheries science (1972) co-supervised by Dr. M. Lloyd Hopwood and Dr. Robert J. Behnke.
After a short stint in Virginia, in 1975 he moved to Oregon State University, where he continues to run an active research program.
His professorship at OSU is a position funded by the U.S. government via the USGS, in partnership with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Dr. Schreck is currently serving his third four-year term as a member of the Independent Multidisciplinary Science Team (IMST) for the state of Oregon, having been appointed by the Governor, Speaker of the House, and President of the Senate.
Schreck has provided a series of contributions to our knowledge of fish biology and to the field of comparative endocrinology.
[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] He has also contributed a number of papers on the effects of different rearing conditions, handling, and transport practices on indices of stress, endocrine function, and performance in juvenile Pacific salmon.
[26] In addition, he and his graduate student were the first to combine multiple types of characteristics to establish genetic similarity among fishes – using morphology, allozyme patterns, and life history traits (DNA was added in subsequent publications).