He was a German chemist who held professorships at Kassel, Marburg, and Heidelberg.

His early researches on arsenic-containing compounds cost him an eye in an explosion. He then turned to gas analysis and spectroscopy, enabling him and kirchhoff to discover the elements caesium (1860) and rubidium (1861). He also popularized the use of the Bunsen burner and developed the Bunsen cell.