Ian Stirling (biologist)


Ian Grote Stirling is a research scientist emeritus with Environment and Climate Change Canada and an adjunct professor in the University of Alberta Department of Biological Sciences. His research has focused mostly on Arctic and Antarctic zoology and ecology, and he is one of the world's top authorities on polar bears. Stirling has written five books and more than 150 articles published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. He has written and spoken extensively about the danger posed to polar bears by global warming.

Early life and education

Ian Stirling was born to Andrew and Margaret Stirling on September 26, 1941. He completed his B.Sc. at the University of British Columbia in 1963, and his M.Sc. in zoology at UBC in 1965. For his M.Sc. thesis, Stirling studied captive blue grouse under James F. Bendell. Under the advice of Ian McTaggart-Cowan, Stirling then enrolled in a Ph.D. program at the University of Canterbury, where he studied the population ecology of Weddell seals in Antarctica under Bernard Stonehouse. Stirling obtained his Ph.D. in 1968.

Career

From 1970 to 2007, Stirling served as a research scientist for the Canadian Wildlife Service, focusing his research on polar bears, most notably on a long-term study of polar bears in western Hudson Bay near Churchill, Manitoba. He was among the first to draw attention to the potential impacts of climate change on polar bears. Stirling retired in 2007.
Stirling has served as a member of the Committee of Scientific Advisors of the Marine Mammal Commission, and he was the first Canadian to be elected president of the Society for Marine Mammalogy. He is a long-standing member of the IUCN Polar Bear Specialist Group and currently acts as a scientific advisor to Polar Bears International.

Awards and recognition