Gregor Mendel
Gregor Mendel, (1822-84). Austrian botanist, who discovered the basic principles of genetics. The son of a peasant, Mendel became a monk and lived at the Abbey of St Thomas in Brunn. He trained as a science teacher and maintained his early interest in botany, growing pea plants in the monastery garden in a series of experiments that lasted for eight years (1857-65). He concluded that characteristics such as tallness in pea plants were determined by pairs of factors (now known as genes), which were contributed equally by both parents and were inherited by the offspring. Mendel published his findings in 1865 but they aroused little enthusiasm. The importance of his work was, not recognized until 1900, when it was rediscovered by Hugo de Vries and other biologists working in the same field.
