Gustav Kirchhoff

Gustav Kirchhoff
Born	Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (1824-03-12)12 March 1824 Königsberg, East Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia
Died	17 October 1887(1887-10-17) (aged 63) Berlin, German Empire
Resting place	Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof, Berlin
Alma mater	University of Königsberg
Known for	Kirchhoff's circuit laws (1845) Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation (1860) Discovering caesium (1860) Discovering rubidium (1861)
Spouses	Clara Richelot ​ ​ (m. 1857; died 1869)​ Luise Brömmel ​ (m. 1872)​
Children	5
Awards	Rumford Medal (1862) Cothenius Medal (1876) Matteucci Medal (1877) Davy Medal (1877) Janssen Medal (1887)
Honors	Pour le Mérite (1874)
Scientific career
Fields	Chemistry mathematics physics
Institutions	University of Berlin (1847–1850, 1875–1887) University of Breslau (1850–1854) University of Heidelberg (1854–1875)
Academic advisors	Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi Franz Ernst Neumann Friedrich Julius Richelot
Doctoral students	Gabriel Lippmann (1874) Heinrich Hertz (1880)
Other notable students	Loránd Eötvös Edward Leamington Nichols Max Noether Heike Kamerlingh Onnes Max Planck Ernst Schröder

Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (German: [ˈgʊstaːf ˈʁoːbɛʁt ˈkɪʁçhɔf]; 12 March 1824 – 17 October 1887) was a German chemist, mathematician and physicist who contributed to the fundamental understanding of electrical circuits, spectroscopy and the emission of black-body radiation by heated objects.^[1][2] He also coined the term black body in 1860.^[3]

Several different sets of concepts are named "Kirchhoff's laws" after him, which include Kirchhoff's circuit laws, Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation, and Kirchhoff's law of thermochemistry.

The Bunsen–Kirchhoff Award for spectroscopy is named after Kirchhoff and his colleague, Robert Bunsen.