Gregor Mendel.

                               GREGOR MENDEL.

Gregor Johann Mendel was born  on july 20, 1822. He was an austrian botanist and plant experimenter who laid the mathematical foundation of the science of genetics. As a child, Mendel benefited from the progressive education provided by the local vicar, and he eventually enrolled at the Philosophical Institute in Olmutz (now Olomouc). Working in his monastery's garden, he began planning the experiments that led to his formulation of the basic principle of heredity. He used the edible pea for his studies, crossing varieties that had maintained constant differences in distinct traits such as height (tall or short) and seed colour (green or yellow). Mendel demonstrated that the inheritanceof certain tarits in pea plants follows particular patterns, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance. The profound significance of Mendel's work was not recognized until the turn of the 20th century, when the independent rediscovery of these laws initiated the modern science of genetics. He theorized that the occurrence of the visible alternative traits, in the constant hybrids and in their progeny, was due to the occurrence of paired elementary units of heredity, now known as genes. What was new in Mendel's interpretation of his data was his recognition that genes obey simple statistical laws. His system proved to be of general application and is one of the basic principles of biology.