Gregor Mendel, born Johann Mendel, was an Austrian scientist and Augustinian friar.¹⁾

He was born on July 20, 1822, in Heinzendorf, Austria (now Hynčice, Czech Republic).²⁾

Mendel is often referred to as the “father of modern genetics” for his groundbreaking work on inheritance in pea plants.³⁾

He conducted his experiments on pea plants between 1856 and 1863 in the garden of the Monastery of St. Thomas in Brno, Czech Republic.⁴⁾

Mendel's experiments laid the foundation for the laws of inheritance, which became known as Mendelian genetics.⁵⁾

His work remained largely unnoticed until it was rediscovered at the turn of the 20th century.⁶⁾

Mendel studied at the University of Vienna, where he initially pursued a degree in physics and later switched to biology.⁷⁾

He also studied mathematics under the renowned mathematician Christian Doppler.⁸⁾

Mendel's experiments involved carefully controlling the cross-breeding of pea plants with distinct traits, such as height, flower color, and seed texture.⁹⁾

He meticulously recorded the traits of each successive generation of pea plants.¹⁰⁾

From his experiments, Mendel formulated two fundamental principles known as the Law of Segregation and the Law of Independent Assortment.¹¹⁾

The Law of Segregation states that alleles (alternative forms of a gene) separate during gamete formation, with each gamete carrying only one allele for each trait.¹²⁾

The Law of Independent Assortment states that different traits are inherited independently of each other.¹³⁾

Mendel's work challenged prevailing ideas of inheritance at the time, which were largely based on blending inheritance.¹⁴⁾

He published his findings in 1866 in the journal Proceedings of the Natural History Society of Brünn.¹⁵⁾