Early life

Stieg was born in Milwaukee, WI, the third son of Betty and Edwin Stieg. He attended parochial schools for his primary and secondary education, and then enrolled at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Wisconsin–Madison

The University of Wisconsin–Madison is a public research university located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1848, UW–Madison is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. It became a land-grant institution in 1866...

 (UW) in 1970.

University & Graduate Education

Stieg earned a B.S. degree in Zoology

Zoology

Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...

 from UW in 1974. Philip pursued graduate studies in neuroanatomy

Neuroanatomy

Neuroanatomy is the study of the anatomy and organization of the nervous system. In contrast to animals with radial symmetry, whose nervous system consists of a distributed network of cells, animals with bilateral symmetry have segregated, defined nervous systems, and thus we can begin to speak of...

 & neuroscience

Neuroscience

Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system. Traditionally, neuroscience has been seen as a branch of biology. However, it is currently an interdisciplinary science that collaborates with other fields such as chemistry, computer science, engineering, linguistics, mathematics,...

 at Albany Medical College

Albany Medical College

Albany Medical College is a medical school located in Albany, New York, United States. It was founded in 1839 by Amos Dean, Dr. Thomas Hun and others, and is one of the oldest medical schools in the nation...

/Union University

Union University

Union University is a private, evangelical Christian, liberal arts university located in Jackson, Tennessee, with additional campuses in Germantown, Tennessee, and Hendersonville, Tennessee...

, and was awarded a Ph.D.

Ph.D.

A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 in 1980. He then attended medical school at the Medical College of Wisconsin

Medical College of Wisconsin

Medical College of Wisconsin is a private, freestanding medical school and graduate school located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It was formerly affiliated with Marquette University....

 in Milwaukee, completing his M.D. degree in 1983.

Stieg was a resident in general surgery

General surgery

General surgery, despite its name, is a surgical specialty that focuses on abdominal organs, e.g., intestines including esophagus, stomach, small bowel, colon, liver, pancreas, gallbladder and bile ducts, and often the thyroid gland . They also deal with diseases involving the skin, breast, soft...

 and neurosurgery

Neurosurgery

Neurosurgery is the medical specialty concerned with the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spine, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, and extra-cranial cerebrovascular system.-In the United States:In...

 at the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical School & Parkland Memorial Hospital

Parkland Memorial Hospital

Parkland Memorial Hospital is a hospital located at 5201 Harry Hines Boulevard, just west of Oak Lawn in Dallas, Texas . It is the main hospital of the Dallas County Hospital District and serves as Dallas County's public hospital.- History :The original hospital opened in 1894 in a wooden...

, under the direction of Duke Samson and Hunt Batjer. Thereafter, he did a fellowship in cell transplantation for restorative neurological function at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm

Stockholm

Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...

, Sweden.

Professional career

Stieg joined the faculty of the Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School

Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....

, Brigham and Women's Hospital

Brigham and Women's Hospital

Brigham and Women's Hospital is the largest hospital of the Longwood Medical and Academic Area in Boston, Massachusetts. It is directly adjacent to Harvard Medical School of which it is the second largest teaching affiliate with 793 beds...

, and Children's Hospital of Boston in Boston, MA in 1989, after completion of his postgraduate training. He developed research and clinical interests in cerebral protection and restorative function, neural transplantation, neuronal regeneration after stroke, cerebrovascular surgery, and surgery of the skull base. His investigative studies have focused on understanding the mechanisms of injury in the central nervous system

Central nervous system

The central nervous system is the part of the nervous system that integrates the information that it receives from, and coordinates the activity of, all parts of the bodies of bilaterian animals—that is, all multicellular animals except sponges and radially symmetric animals such as jellyfish...

 after trauma, as well as mechanisms of cell-membrane transport and their implications after traumatic brain injury.

In November 2000, Stieg was named Professor & Chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Cornell-Weill Medical College and New York-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City. He has continued to be active in clinical practice, research, and medical education since then. Stieg is the recipient of several awards and honors, including citations in "Who's Who

Who's Who

Who's Who is the title of a number of reference publications, generally containing concise biographical information on a particular group of people...

 in Health and Medical Services" and "The Best Doctors in America". He has authored over 60 peer-reviewed publications in the medical literature, and he has co-edited a textbook entitled "Intracranial Arteriovenous Malformation

Arteriovenous malformation

Arteriovenous malformation or AVM is an abnormal connection between veins and arteries, usually congenital. This pathology is widely known because of its occurrence in the central nervous system, but can appear in any location. An arteriovenous malformation is a vascular anomaly. It is a...

s".