Robert Bunsen (1811–99)

Born in 1811 in Göttingen, Germany, chemist Robert Bunsen was a pioneer of emission spectroscopy in chemical analysis. Bunsen attended the University of Göttingen, where he earned his PhD in chemistry when he was just 19 years old. Funded by a government grant, he then traveled for three years throughout Europe, visiting scientists and laboratories. Upon his return to Germany, he taught at various universities, including Göttingen, Marburg, and Breslau, before settling at the University of Heidelberg in 1852. In addition to being a successful teacher, Bunsen was a prolific researcher. He found an antidote to arsenic poisoning and studied the highly toxic compound cacodyl. The work was very dangerous: Bunsen nearly died from arsenic poisoning and was blinded in one eye following a chemical explosion. In later work he developed the zinc–carbon cell, a less expensive chemical battery than the Grove cell, which used platinum. His work analyzing gases led to a way to make blast furnaces burn more efficiently. He traveled to Iceland in 1846 to study its volcanoes and geysers. In 1854 he teamed up with Gustav Kirchhoff, and the two began a productive partnership, during which they focused on the burgeoning field of spectroscopy. With the spectroscope they invented, they discovered two new elements, cesium in 1860 and rubidium in 1861. Over his extensive career, Bunsen became a member of such professional organizations as the Chemical Society of London, the French Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Society of London. Among the awards he received were two bestowed by the Royal Society: the Copley Medal in 1860 and the first-ever Davy Medal, in 1877. He died at age 88 in 1899. (Image credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, E. Scott Barr Collection)

Date in History: 30 March 1811