Hannah Steinberg

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Hannah Steinberg (16 March 1926 – 11 December 2019) was a trailblazer in experimental psychopharmacology, the study of how drugs affect the mind. Born in Vienna, she fled to London on the Kindertransport in 1938 and later studied at Putney High School and Queen Anne's School, Caversham. She began studying commerce but switched to psychology at University College London (UCL), earning a first in 1948. Her PhD at UCL explored the effects of nitrous oxide on task performance, finding that small doses could interfere with complex tasks but sometimes improve memory recall.

She spent her career at UCL, becoming the world’s first Reader of Psychopharmacology in 1962 and the first Professor of Psychopharmacology in 1970. Her work showed that drug effects can depend on drug interactions and the emotional state of the user. She also studied drug-taking behavior and addiction. She sometimes tested drugs on students and staff, including J. B. S. Haldane, but never on humans without first testing them on herself.

Steinberg’s longtime partner and collaborator was Elizabeth Sykes. Together they explored how exercise can support wellbeing and creativity, while also noting the risk of addictive exercise. She helped found the British Association of Psychopharmacology and the International College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and started the Academic Women’s Achievement Group at UCL, with records from 1979 to 1986 held at the National Archives.