Robert Wilhelm Bunsen (31.03.1811 -16.08.1899) was a German chemist and a corresponding member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences (1846). He was born in Göttingen. He graduated from the University of Göttingen (1830). He was professor of chemistry at the universities of Marburg (1838-51) and Heidelberg (1852-89).
Together with G. Kirchhoff he developed spectral analysis in 1859, which came to be widely used in various branches of science, including physics. By this method Bunsen and Kirchhoff discovered two new chemical elements: caesium (1860) and rubidium (1861). In 1840 he invented the zinc-carbon galvanic cell (the Bunsen cell), which at that time had the greatest electromotive force (about 1.7 V), in 1843 a photometer, in 1850 the gas burner that served as a light source in the early studies of spectral analysis (the Bunsen burner), and a number of other laboratory instruments. He introduced the concept of optical density. He developed accurate methods of gas analysis. Together with the English chemist H. Roscoe he founded photochemistry, formulating one of its basic laws — the Bunsen-Roscoe law.
A member of a number of academies of sciences, in particular the St Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1862).