An Augustinian friar and naturalist whose experiments crossing garden peas laid the foundations of genetics.
Gregor Johann Mendel was an Augustinian friar, later abbot of the monastery in Staré Brno, and a naturalist who formulated the laws of heredity, today known as Mendel's laws. He was born on 20 July 1822 in Hynčice in Silesia into a German-speaking family and died on 6 January 1884 in Brno[1].
Youth and education
As a child he was recommended from the village school in his native village to the Piarist school in Lipník nad Bečvou. At the age of twelve he moved to the grammar school in Opava. Because his parents could no longer support him financially, he began tutoring less gifted classmates. In 1840 he enrolled at the Philosophical Institute in Olomouc; the application required a curriculum vitae in Czech, which he therefore learned[1].
Entering the monastery and studies in Vienna
In 1843 Johann Mendel entered the Augustinian order in the monastery in Staré Brno and took the religious name Gregor, which by the order's tradition is placed before the baptismal name. Thanks to the then abbot Napp, from 1851 to 1853 he was able to study in Vienna, where he gained an education in the exact sciences. In mathematics and physics he learned to evaluate data statistically and to plan experiments, which he used in his later scientific work[1].
Plant hybridisation experiments
From 1854 to 1864 he carried out plant hybridisation experiments, chiefly on the garden pea (Pisum sativum) but also on other plants, for example hawkweed (Hieracium). He devoted nine years to the experiments. Three laws of heredity arose from their conclusions[1].
In February and March 1865 he lectured on the results of his experiments with plant hybrids to members of the Natural Science Society in Brno. According to the Mendel Museum of Masaryk University, the response to his work was minimal. In 1866 he published the lectures under the title Experiments on Plant Hybrids. Recognition came only in 1900, when his discoveries were confirmed and, according to the museum, Mendel was called the "father of genetics"[1].
The abbey, beekeeping and meteorology
In 1868 he became abbot of the Augustinian abbey in Staré Brno and no longer had much time for his own experiments. He devoted himself to his two hobbies, beekeeping and meteorology. In 1871 he had a beehouse with a small workroom built in the abbey garden to his own design. He pursued meteorological observation from 1863 to 1882, publishing his first article on meteorological observations in 1863. In the monastery he took meteorological measurements three times a day at several places and recorded them carefully[1].
Death
Gregor Johann Mendel died on 6 January 1884. Three days later he was buried in the Augustinian tomb at Brno Central Cemetery[1].