Gregor Mendel

Gregor Mendel

On July 20, 1822, in Heinzendorf, Austria, Gregor Johann Mendel was born. He was the first person to trace the characteristics of successive generations of a living thing, and his work has now become the foundation for the modern science of genetics. Today, we know him as "The Father of Genetics."
Upon graduation, Mendel realized that he needed additional schooling to begin a career, so at the age of 18 he enrolled at the Olmutz Philosophical Institute. He was so excellent in school he went on to become a teacher. During those times most teachers were priests, and in 1843, at the age of only 21, Mendel entered the monastery of St. Thomas, a scientific and religious center in Brno, Austria.While there he excelled again, and he was exposed to many scholars. Four years later in 1847 he was pronounced a priest. In 1851, the monastery sent him to study at the University of Vienna to train to be a teacher in Mathematics and Biology. However, Gregory failed the elementary teachers exam and returned to Brno in 1845. That same year, he became a teacher at a technical college institute.

During the middle of Mendel's life, he did new work on the theories of heredity. Mendel was greatly inspired by his professors and colleagues to study the difference in plants while at the University of Vienna. A few years later, he conducted studies on pea plants in the monastery's gardens. These studies led to Mendel's Laws of Inheritence; statements about the way certain characteristics are transmitted from one generation to another in an organism. Most of Mendel’s fame came from his research in the monastery garden during the years he spent there. His attraction to research was based on his love of nature. His law of Assortment (which states that allele pairs separate independently during the formation of gametes; reproductive cells that unite during sexual reproduction) and law of Segregation ( which states that allele pairs separate or segregate during gamete formation, and...

Similar Essays