Max Ernst August Bodenstein (July 15, 1871 – September 3, 1942) was a German physical chemist known for his work in chemical kinetics. He was first to postulate a chain reaction mechanism and that explosions are branched chain reactions, later applied to the atomic bomb.

Max Bodenstein was born in Magdeburg on 15 July 1871 as the eldest son of Magdeburg merchant and brewer Franz Bodenstein (1834–1885) and his first wife Elise Meissner (1846–1876).

In 1888, Max Bodenstein enrolled at the University of Heidelberg at the age of 17 to study chemistry with Carl Remigius Fresenius. On 25 October 1893, he received his PhD thesis: "Über die Zersetzung des Jodwasserstoffes in der Hitze" (On the degradation of hydrogen iodide in hot temperature), with Victor Meyer as his supervisor at the University of Heidelberg.

Following graduation, Bodenstein received two years of additional training in Berlin-Charlottenburg and Göttingen. Bodenstein studied organic chemistry and catalysis in flowing systems and discovered diffusion controlled catalytic reactions and photochemical reactions with Karl Liebermann at the Technische Hochschule in Charlottenburg (now Technische Universität Berlin), and physical chemistry with Walther Nernst at the University of Göttingen.

In 1896, Max Bodenstein returned to the University of Heidelberg, where he studied decomposition of hydrohalic acids and their formation.

In 1899, he habilitated with the theme: "Gasreaktionen in der chemischen Kinetik" (Gas reactions in chemical kinetics).

In 1900, Max Bodenstein became Lecturer at the physicochemical institute of Wilhelm Ostwald at University of Leipzig. In 1904, he was appointed as Titularprofessor at the same institute.

In 1906, he became associate professor at the University of Berlin and department head at the physicochemical institute of Walther Nernst.