Professor James Stirling

Professorial Fellow

Telephone: 01223 338259
Email: wjs2@cam.ac.uk

James Stirling is the Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Cavendish Laboratory (Department of Physics) at the University of Cambridge.

He took the Mathematics Tripos at Cambridge, graduating with first class honours in 1975 and obtaining his PhD in Theoretical Particle Physics in 1979.  After periods of research in the USA, Cambridge and the European Centre for Particle Physics (CERN) in Geneva, he was appointed to a Lectureship at Durham in 1986.  He was promoted to Senior Lecturer in 1989, to Reader in 1990 and to Professor in Mathematical Sciences and Physics in 1992.  In 2000 he became the first Director of the new Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology (IPPP) at Durham University.  From 2001 to 2003, he served as the first Chair of the PPARC Science Committee, the Research Council’s top-level scientific advisory committee.  In 2005 he was appointed Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at Durham University, a post which he held for three years before moving to Cambridge to take up the Jacksonian Professorship in September 2008.  As Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research he had responsibility for all aspects of the academic research carried out within the University, including postgraduate research, and leading the University's preparation for the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise.  In October 2008 he was appointed Professorial Fellow at Peterhouse, the college at which he was an undergraduate and postgraduate student.

Professor Stirling's research area is theoretical particle physics.  He has published more than 300 research papers, including some of the most frequently cited papers in the physical sciences.  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 Professor Stirling was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in May 1999.  He was awarded a CBE in the 2006 New Year Honours List for services to science.  He has been a member of the Physics Panel in two Research Assessment Exercises (2001 and 2008) and was Deputy Chair of the 2008 panel.  He served on the Council of the Royal Society from 2007 to 2008, and is currently a member of the Council of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

Professor Stirling’s departmental home page can be found here.