Max Bodenstein
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Max Ernst August Bodenstein (15 July 1871 - 3 September 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.
He received his Ph.D for work with Victor Meyer at the University of Heidelberg
He also studied decomposition of hydrohalic acids and their formation. Bodenstein studied catalysis in flowing systems and discovered diffusion controlled catalytic reactions and studied photochemical reactions.
He died in in Berlin. His tomb is at the cemetery Berlin-Nikolassee. A tablet commemorating Bodenstein and Walther Nernst was placed in 1983.[1]
The Bodenstein number, a special type of Peclet number that is often used to describe axial mixing in so- called axial-dispersion models, is named after him.
