Gregor Mendel was an Austrian monk who conducted early experiments with pea plants that formed the basis of genetics. Through his experiments, he discovered that traits are passed from parents to offspring through discrete units (now known as genes) and that some traits are dominant over others. He developed the laws of segregation and independent assortment to describe inheritance patterns. Mendel's work established genetics as a science and he is considered the father of genetics.

1. Genetics Biology I Factoids