Stirling grew up in Annapolis, Maryland, the son of an environmental activist and master gardener. In 2019, he graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with a BA in neuroscience and minors in chemistry and environmental science. During his time at Penn, Stirling was an involved member of the student community, taking on leadership positions in the Transfer Student Organization, Alpha Iota Gamma healthcare fraternity, and Student Sustainability Association. He also worked at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, conducting global health research. After graduation, he moved to England to earn a MSc in clinical and therapeutic neuroscience at the University of Oxford, for which he wrote two dissertations – one investigating the role of the synaptic protein SynGAP1 in neurodevelopmental disorder, and the other testing the efficacy of behavioral activation to treat depressive symptoms and shift cognitive biases during Covid-19 lockdown.

 

Stirling moved back to Philadelphia to join the BarziLab shortly afterwards in October of 2020, serving as a clinical research coordinator studying mechanisms of risk and resilience to environmental adversity. Specifically, Stirling has taken a lead role investigating racial health disparities and the role of discrimination in developmental outcomes of children and adolescents. Next, Stirling hopes to pursue an MD-PhD with the goal of conducting translational neuroscience research to understand mechanisms of pathology and recovery in psychiatric disorders. Outside of the lab, Stirling enjoys playing pick-up soccer, reading, hiking, and being a loving father to his plants.