Hannah Steinberg

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Hannah Steinberg
Born16 March 1926
Died11 December 2019(2019-12-11) (aged 93)
Alma materPutney High School
University College London
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity College London
ThesisSome effects of depressant drugs on behaviour (1953)

Hannah Steinberg (16 March 1926 – 11 December 2019) was a pioneer of experimental psychopharmacology,[1] the study of the interaction of drugs on the human mind.

Early life

Steinberg was born in

Reading University and then at Denton Secretarial College[3] she changed course. After beginning a degree in French at University College London,[4] she then converted to Psychology and graduated with a first in 1948.[2]

Career

Her curiosity about science led her to work with Frank Winton in the Department of Pharmacology at UCL, where she completing a PhD exploring the effects of nitrous oxide on task completion.[2] She discovered that small amounts interfered with completing complex tasks but that it also improved memory recall.[5][6] She continued to work at UCL for the rest of her career, in 1962 becoming the first Reader of Psychopharmacology in the world[7] and in 1970, the first Professor of Psychopharmacology. Her research focused on the effects of drug combinations, which she discovered could not be predicted from the actions of the drugs alone. She also explored how the drug efficacy could be impacted by the emotional state of the drug taker. From this her interests grew to encompass drug-taking behaviours and addiction.[8] Many of her test subjects were students and she also tested on staff, including J. B. S. Haldane, but she never tested drugs on humans that she had not tested on herself. She also worked closely with Elizabeth Sykes, her long-term colleague and partner, to investigate benefits of exercise for wellbeing and creativity the potential my harmful exercise addiction.[2]

Other work

Steinberg was a founding member of the

National Archives.[10]

Publications

References

  1. .
  2. ^ . Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  3. ^ "Hannah Steinberg". Debretts. Retrieved 13 October 2015.[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ "UCL - London's Global University". UCL. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  5. S2CID 145175861
    .
  6. .
  7. ^ "Lifetime Achievement Award 2001". British Association for Psychopharmacology. Archived from the original on 17 August 2015. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  8. S2CID 146203412
    .
  9. ^ "Officers and Council, 1974-1975" (PDF). Looking Back - a history of BAP. British Association of Psychopharmacology. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
  10. ^ Archives, The National. "The Discovery Service". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 13 October 2015.