Description
Mendel was born in German-speaking family in Heinzendorf, Moravia, Austrian
Empire (now Hynice, district of Nový Jiín, Czech Republic). During his childhood Mendel worked as a gardener, and as a young man attended the Philosophical Institute in Olomouc. In 1843 he entered an Augustinian monastery in Brno. He was later sent to the University of Vienna to study.
Gregor Mendel was inspired by both his professors at University and his
colleagues at the monastery to study variation in plants. He commenced his study in his monastery's experimental garden. Between 1856 and 1863 Mendel cultivated and tested some 28,000 pea plants. His experiments brought forth two generalizations which later became known as Mendel's Laws of Inheritance.