Mendel was an Augustinian friar at St. Thomas's Abbey, where the monastery garden provided the space for his extensive botanical research.

By breeding pea plants, Mendel identified the mathematical patterns that govern how inherited characteristics are transmitted between generations.

Mendel defined recessive traits as those that are only physically expressed when an organism lacks a corresponding dominant trait.

Mendel's work remained largely ignored by the scientific community for decades until it was rediscovered around 1900, sixteen years after his death.