After a 1996 PhD titled  High-precision U-series dating of corals from Western Australia : implication for last interglacial sea-levels  at the Australian National University, Stirling worked at University of Michigan and ETH Zürich before moving to the University of Otago in 2006, rising to full professor in 2018. [https://www.otago.ac.nz/geology/staff/academic/claudine-stirling.html Prof Stirling] is a member of the [https://www.otago.ac.nz/geology/index.html Department of Geology] with current research interests including: isotope geochemistry, biogeochemical cycles of trace metals, paleoceanography & paleoclimatology, and environmental geochemistry.
In 2024 Stirling was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society Te Apārangi.