Patrick Christopher Steptoe CBE FRS[1] (9 June 1913 – 21 March 1988) was an English obstetrician and gynaecologist and a pioneer of fertility treatment.

Steptoe was responsible with biologist and physiologist Robert Edwards and the nurse and embryologist Jean Purdy for developing in vitro fertilisation.

His chief at Highgate, Kathleen Harding, was credited by Steptoe as teaching him a great deal about the management of infertility.

Subsequently, Robert Edwards, a physiologist from the University of Cambridge, contacted him and got him interested in collaborating in the development of in vitro fertilization.

To accommodate the increased patient number and train specialists, he, Purdy, and Edwards founded the Bourn Hall Clinic, Cambridgeshire in 1980 of which Steptoe was a Medical Director until his death.

[10] In the 1988 New Year Honours, he was appointed Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), just a week after the 1,000th test-tube baby, conceived with his help, was born.

[12]A plaque was unveiled at the Bourn Hall Clinic in July 2013 by Louise Brown and Alastair MacDonald – the world's first IVF baby boy – commemorating Steptoe and Edwards.