Gregor Johann Mendel, Abbot of the Augustinian Monastery, Brünn, Austria, (now Brno, the Czech Republic), discovered the celebrated laws of heredity which now bear his name: the law of segregation and the law of independent assortment — that prove the existence of paired elementary units of heredity (factors) and establish the statistical laws governing them.

Abbey of St. Thomas, in Brno, Czech Republic

He later presented his work from these experiments in two lectures before the Society for the Study of the Natural Sciences in Brünn in 1865. His paper resulting from these lectures, Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden ("Experiments in Plant Hybridization,") was published in the Society's Proceedings in 1866.

Please take a moment to use the following pages to learn more about the man and his work, and the great history and contribution that he represents at Villanova.