Bunsen, Robert Wilhelm 1811-99
German chemist and physicist

Born in G�ttingen, he studied at the university there and for his PhD produced a Latin dissertation on hygrometers. He became a professor at Kassel, went to Marburg in 1838 and, after a short period at Breslau (now Wrocjaw, Poland), he became a professor (1852) at Heidelberg, where he remained until his retirement. He was a talented experimentalist, although the eponymous burner, for which he is best known, is a modification of something developed in England by Michael Faraday. He did invent the grease-spot photometer, a galvanic battery, an ice calorimeter and, with Sir Henry Roscoe, an actinometer. He shared with Gustav Robert Kirchhoff the discovery, in 1859, of spectrum analysis, which facilitated the discovery of new elements, including caesium and rubidium. His most important work was his study of organo-arsenic compounds such as cacodyl oxide. Following the partial loss of sight in one eye during an experiment, he forbade the study of organic chemistry in his laboratory.