Many people associate the word Bunsen with a gas burner used in school laboratories. Although generally known for his work on perfecting the Bunsen burner, which was actually an invention of Michael Faraday, Robert Bunsen's true claim to fame is spectroscopy. Along with Gustav Kirchhoff, Bunsen discovered the process of chemical analysis called spectroscopy.

The son of a university professor, Bunsen graduated from the Gymnasium at Holzminden in 1828. He began his graduate studies in chemistry, physics, and mathematics at the University of Gottingen in his hometown (the same school at which his father taught), earning his doctorate in 1830. Using grant money awarded by the Hanoverian government, Bunsen spent several years traveling in Europe, visiting Berlin, Bonn, Paris, and Vienna, and meeting with such prominent scientists as Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac, Henri-Victor Regnault (1810-1878), and Cesar Despretz (1798-1863). Upon his return Bunsen served on the academic staff of several universities...