Max Christian Theodor Steenbeck (21 March 1904 – 15 December 1981) was a German nuclear physicist who worked at the Siemens-Schuckertwerke in his early career, during which time he invented the betatron in 1934.
After the Second World War, Steenbeck was taken to the Soviet Union and recruited to participate in Soviet program of nuclear weapons. In 1955, he returned to East Germany to continue a career in nuclear physics.