Abbot Gregor J. Mendel O.S.A. (1822-1884), Father of Genetics
Abbot Gregor J. Mendel became the first to understand the importance of statistical investigation and to apply a knowledge of mathematics to a biological problem. His paper announcing these discoveries, "Experiments in Plant Hybridization," was read at the meetings of the Natural History Society of Brunn in Bohemia (Czech Republic) at the sessions of February 8 and March 8, 1865. It was printed in the Proceedings of the Natural History Society in 1866. Mendel ordered forty reprints of his paper which he sent to various scholars throughout Europe at the end of 1866, and sent to 133 other associations of natural scientists, prestigious libraries worldwide, and to scholars outside of Brünn. His work, however, was largely ignored. In the spring of 1900, three botanists, Hugo de Vries (Holland), Karl Correns (Germany) and E. von Tschermak (Austria) reported independent verifications of Mendel's work which amounted to a rediscovery of his first principle.
Mendel’s research was not limited to the study of plant heredity. He also bred bees, though little information remains about the results of that research. Furthermore, he carried out some research in meteorology and, yes, astronomy as well. He co-founded the Natural History Society of Brünn in 1861, and the Austrian Meteorological Society in 1865.
Image Credit: Wellcome Library, London
Priest
Although Mendel’s pea plant experiments are mentioned frequently in science textbooks, the fact that he was a priest is less often noted. The monastery of St. Thomas is described by Iltis as pulsing “with artistic and scientific energy,” and the monks “engaged in independent activities either scientific or artistic.” During Mendel’s first year there, he spent a good deal of time in the Monastery’s herbarium, founded and maintained by Fr. Thaler, a distinguished but by then deceased botanist. Another priest at the monastery, Fr. Bratrenek, also an amateur botanist, encouraged young Mendel’s interests in the study of plant heredity.
