Gustav Kirchhoff

Gustav Kirchhoff
Gustav Kirchhoff
Born	Gustav Robert Kirchhoff; 12 March 1824; Königsberg, East Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia
Died	17 October 1887 (aged 63); Berlin, German Empire
Resting place	Alter St.-Matthäus-Kirchhof, Berlin
Alma mater	University of Königsberg (Dr. phil.)
Known for	Discovery of caesium and rubidium; Kirchhoff's diffraction formula; Kirchhoff's circuit laws; Kirchhoff's theorem; Kirchhoff's law of thermal radiation;
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);
	Scientific career
Fields	Spectroscopy; optics; electromagnetism; graph theory; thermodynamics;
Institutions	University of Berlin (1847–1850, 1875–1887); University of Breslau (1850–1854); University of Heidelberg (1854–1875);
Doctoral advisor	Franz Ernst Neumann
Notable students	See list Hermann Aron ; Ivan Borgman ; Siegfried Czapski ; Loránd Eötvös ; Heinrich Hertz ; Heike Kamerlingh Onnes ; Viktor Kirpichov ; Johannes Knoblauch ; Sofia Kovalevskaya ; Gabriel Lippmann ; Jacob Lüroth ; Edward Leamington Nichols ; Max Noether ; Karol Olszewski ; Max Planck ; Ernst Schröder ; Arthur Schuster ; August Witkowski ; Heinrich Martin Weber ; Arthur Williams Wright ;

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

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

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