Max Steenbeck (born 21.03.1904) - a German physicist, a member of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (1956), and in 1962 —64 its vice-president. Born in Kiel, where he graduated from the university. In 1928 — 45 he worked at the firm Siemens & Schuckert, and in 1945 —56 at research institutes in the USSR. From 1956 he was professor at the University of Jena and in 1956 —59 director of the Institute of Magnetohydrodynamics. In 1957—63 he directed the construction of a nuclear reactor. From 1965 he has been president of the Scientific Council of the GDR.
His work concerned the physics of gas discharge, electrodynamics, plasma physics, magnetohydrodynamics and applied physics. He was the first to formulate the principle of minimum field strength in a gas discharge. Put forward a number of interesting ideas connected with the application of magnetohydrodynamics to the solution of problems of astronomy, for example a theory of the origin of the magnetic field of the Sun, planets and stars. Made a great contribution to the working out of scientific and technical questions of nuclear reactor construction and is one of the participants in the creation of the first nuclear power station of the GDR. Independently of others, he put forward (1927) the idea of the cyclotron. Carried out a study on the physics of weightlessness, important for solving the problems of welding in space.
National Prize of the GDR (twice). A foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1966).