Gregor Mendel
1822–1884 · Austrian (Moravia, modern Czech Republic) · Victorian Era
Known for: Father of genetics who discovered the laws of inheritance through pea plant experiments
Gregor Mendel spent seven years cross-breeding nearly 30,000 pea plants in his monastery garden and discovered the fundamental laws of heredity. He tracked dominant and recessive traits with meticulous statistical analysis, essentially inventing genetics. He published his results in 1866 in an obscure journal—and the entire scientific world ignored him for 34 years.
He was an Augustinian friar who entered the monastery partly for access to education. He failed his teaching exam twice (in biology, ironically) but persevered. His work was rediscovered in 1900 and immediately recognized as revolutionary.
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