Robert Bunsen

Robert Wilhelm Bunsen, (born March 30, 1811, Göttingen, Westphalia [Germany]—died Aug. 16, 1899, Heidelberg), German chemist who, with Gustav Kirchhoff, about 1859 observed that each element emits a light of characteristic wavelength. Such studies opened the field of spectrum analysis, which became of great importance in the study of the Sun and stars and also led Bunsen almost immediately to his discovery of two alkali-group metals, cesium and rubidium.