Gregor Johann Mendel – Father of genetics

Johann Mendel was an Augustinian monk and botanist, and is often called the father of genetics for his study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants.

Johann Mendel was born on July 22, 1822 into a poor family. He was born in Heinzendorf, a village near the border between northern Moravia and Silesia, in Austria.

He was the son of poor family and attended the local schools.

He was ordained into the priesthood in August of 1847 and immediately went to work as a pastor.

In 1851 he was sent to the University of Vienna to study botany, chemistry, physics and zoology, and returning to his abbey in 1853 as a teacher, principally of physics.

Mendel began his scientific experiments after his return from Vienna with the hybrid cultivation of pea plants in 1856. His research involved careful planning, necessitated the use of thousands of experimental plants, and by his own account, extended over eight years.

Much of the early works in inheritance developed in the Middle East were destroyed. Mendel rediscovered the rules of heredity by observing the passage of trait in plants grown the monastery.

After spending eight years carrying out experimental work in the monastery garden, he presented his work in a series of two lectures at the meetings of the Association for Natural Research in Brno on the evenings of February 8th and March 8th, 1865.

He published the work as “Experiments in Plant Hybridization” in the society’s Proceeding in 1866.

His experiments brought forth two generalizations which later became known as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance.

He died on January 6, 1884 at the age of 62. Mendel's attraction to research was based on his love of nature.

He was not only interested in plants, but also in meteorology and theories of evolution. Mendel often wondered how plants obtained atypical characteristics. Mendel was being honored for the work with plant hybrids that had not seemed very important during his life.
Gregor Johann Mendel – Father of genetics