Catholic scientist and physicist. Born Straubing, Bavaria, 1787; died Munich, Germany, 1826. At the age of twelve he became an apprentice to a lens-grinder, working six years without pay. By his unaided efforts he rose to be professor royal in the Munich optical institute, 1819. His fame rests chiefly on his initiation of spectrum analysis, the discovery of the Fraunhofer lines in the solar spectrum and his establishing of the laws of diffraction.