Jack Steinberger was born on 25 May 1921 in Bad Kissingen, Bavaria, Germany. He was married to Cynthia Alff and Joan Beauregard. He died on 12 December 2020 in Geneva, Switzerland.
He earned a chemistry degree from the University of Chicago. During WWII, the Army sent him to the radiation laboratory at MIT, where radar was being developed. He received his PhD from Chicago after the war.