Steinberger, daughter of Nobel laureates in Physics Jack Steinberger, studied science at the Collège de Saussure in Switzerland, where she was awarded the de Saussure prize in 1993. Steinberger moved to the United States for her graduate degree, working at Brown University on the cosmic microwave background.[4] She earned her PhD working studying ultracold atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[4] She worked in the Centre for ultracold atoms with Thomas Greytak and Daniel Kleppner,[2] developing new ways to trap ultracold hydrogen and deuterium.[5][6] The comparison of hyperfine splitting in the ground and excited state is expected to test quantum electrodynamics.