James Stirling (academic)

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Professor W. James Stirling CBE, FRS is Professor in Mathematical Sciences and Physics and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at Durham University. He was born and grew up near Belfast, Northern Ireland, and was educated at Belfast Royal Academy. He read mathematics at Peterhouse, Cambridge University, graduating BA in 1975 and obtaining his PhD in Theoretical Particle Physics in 1979. After periods of research in the USA, Cambridge and the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Professor Stirling was appointed to a lectureship at Durham University in 1986. In 2000 he became the first Director of the University's new Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology (IPPP), which together with the Institute for Computational Cosmology, the Institute, forms part of the Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics. From 2001 to 2003, Professor Stirling served as the first Chair of the PPARC Science Committee, the research council's top-level scientific advisory committee. He has also been a member of the Physics Panel in two Research Assessment Exercises (2001 and 2008) and is Deputy Chair of the 2008 panel.

Professor Stirling's research area is theoretical particle physics. In a research career spanning almost 30 years, he has published more than 300 research papers, including some of the most frequently cited papers in the physical sciences. In 1993 he was awarded a Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) Senior Fellowship, which enabled him to work exclusively on research for five years. His particular research interest is particle physics phenomenology – the interface between theory and experiment – and he works closely with experimentalists at research laboratories in Europe and the United States. In recognition of his contribution to particle physics research he was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in May 1999 and is currently a member of the Society's Council. He remains active in research and was awarded a CBE in the 2006 New Years Honours list, for services to science.

From 1 October 2008 Professor Stirling will be the Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Cambridge^[1]