Gregor Mendel
1822 – 1884 Austrian friar, botanist, geneticist
Augustinian friar whose experiments with pea plants uncovered the basic laws of heredity, ignored in his lifetime.
- Religion
- Roman Catholic, Augustinian friar
- Affiliations
- Augustinian Abbey of St Thomas, Brno
Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian friar in Brno who spent years crossing pea plants in the monastery garden and counting the traits of thousands of offspring. From this careful work he worked out the basic rules of inheritance, showing that traits pass down in discrete units in fixed ratios. He published his results in 1866, but they drew almost no attention, and he died with his work unrecognised. Around 1900 several scientists independently rediscovered his laws, and Mendel came to be seen as the founder of genetics.
In the timeline
- 1866 Mendel's laws of heredity, ignored then rediscovered the discoverer
- 1884 Death of Gregor Mendel and burning of his notes central figure