Andrew Steptoe

Andrew Steptoe DPhil DSc FAcSS FMedSci (born 24 April 1951) is a British psychologist and epidemiologist and Head of the Department of Behavioural Science and Health at University College London. He is a pioneer in health psychology and behavioral medicine in the UK and internationally, known for his work on psychosocial factors in cardiovascular disease, ageing, and positive wellbeing and health.

Andrew Patrick Arthur Steptoe was born at St. George’s Hospital, Hyde Park Corner, London, the son of Patrick Steptoe, the obstetrician and gynaecologist responsible for the first IVF birth and Sheena (née Kennedy), an actress. He was brought up in Rochdale, Lancs, and was educated at Uppingham School. He won a choral exhibition to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, from which he graduated with a First Class degree in Natural Sciences in 1972. He subsequently moved to Magdalen College, Oxford, where in 1976 he completed a DPhil on biofeedback and cardiovascular disease in the Department of Psychiatry. His father’s work ethic and determination exerted a lasting effect on Steptoe’s career.

Steptoe was appointed to a Research Lectureship at Christ Church, Oxford, held concurrently with a Medical Research Council Training Fellowship in 1975. He resigned these posts in 1977 to take up a lectureship in the newly formed Department of Psychology at St. George’s Hospital Medical School in 1977. He continued to work at St. George’s for 22 years, and was promoted to senior lecturer in 1981 and to Reader in 1987, before being appointed professor and head of department in 1988. His teaching of psychology to medical students resulted in a textbook Essential Psychology for Medical Practice. In 1983, he was appointed project leader of a Concerted Action on Breakdown in Human Adaptation by the Commission of the European Communities DG XII, continuing this work coordinating projects on stress and health across Europe until 1991.

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