Gregor Johann Mendel is known as the Father of Genetics

born July 20, 1822, Heinzendorf, Silesia, Austrian Empire [now Hynčice, Czech Republic]—died January 6, 1884, Brünn, Austria-Hungary [now Brno, Czech Republic])

A botanist, teacher, and Augustinian prelate, the first person to lay the mathematical foundation of the science of genetics, in what came to be called Mendelism.

Born to a family with limited means in German-speaking Silesia, Mendel was raised in a rural setting. 

His academic abilities were recognized by the local priest, who persuaded his parents to send him away to school at the age of 11. 

His Gymnasium (grammar school) studies completed in 1840, Mendel entered a two-year program in philosophy at the Philosophical Institute of the University of Olmütz (Olomouc, Czech Republic), where he excelled in physics and mathematics, completing his studies in 1843.

His initial years away from home were hard, because his family could not sufficiently support him. He tutored other students to make ends meet, and twice he suffered serious depression and had to return home to recover. 

As his father’s only son, Mendel was expected to take over the small family farm, but he preferred a different solution to his predicament, choosing to enter the Altbrünn monastery as a novitiate of the Augustinian order, where he was given the name Gregor.

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Mendel proposed the three Laws of Inheritance: Law of Segregation, Law of Independent Assortment, and law of Dominance.

In order to propose these laws, Mendel had to grow over 10,000 pea plants and it took him almost 8 years to finish them all. Unfortunately, during his time, Mendel’s work wasn’t appreciated much and only after the rediscovery of his findings that the fundamentals of genetics were fully understood.