Gregor Mendel

Gregor Mendel AKA Gregor Johann Mendel Born: 22-Jul-1822 Birthplace: Hynice, Czechia Died: 6-Jan-1884 Location of death: Brno, Czechia Cause of death: unspecified Remains: Buried, Central Cemetery, Brno, Czechia Gender: Male Religion: Roman Catholic Race or Ethnicity: White Occupation: Scientist, Botanist, Religion Nationality: Czechia Executive summary: Discovered the laws of inheritance Teacher, priest, and scientist Johann Mendel was born in 1822 in what was then Austria (now Czechia). His parents were farmers, and as a boy working on the farm he became fascinated with fruit trees and gardening. He was a brilliant student in grade school, and his family struggled to pay his tuition to high school and, later, the Olmutz Philosophical Institute. When he could not afford to attend university, he instead joined the Augustinian monastery, becoming a priest and adopting the new Christian name Gregor. He twice failed the exams required to become a high school science teacher, but still taught on a part-time basis. He was also assigned work as a hospital chaplain, but found it frustrating and difficult, and soon returned to the monastery. At the monastery Mendel tended the garden, and beginning in 1856 he conducted extensive experiments with pea pod plants, tracking some 28,000 individual plants over several years and focusing his attention on seven basic characteristics of the plants. In his experiments, Mendel crossed peas of different varieties — tall, short, various seed shapes and colors, etc. — and kept detailed records of how these characteristics were seen or vanished in subsequent generations. He conducted similar experiments on other plants and on mice, and having been educated in mathematics, Mendel noticed recurring ratios in his analysis of how traits were inherited, ratios which could only be explained through dominance and segregation of genes.

via nndb.com

189th Birthday of Gregor Mendel who was an Austrian scientist and father of genetics