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Biology - Who Is Generally Known As The Founder Of Genetics?

Who is generally known as the founder of genetics?

Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), an Austrian monk and botanist, is considered the founder of genetics. However, it was the English biologist William Bateson (1861-1926) who brought Mendel's work to the attention of the scientific world and who coined the term "genetics."

Mendel conducted experiments in which he cross-pollinated several varieties of pea plants and discovered that genetic traits are passed between successive generations in specific and regular ratios. Using those ratios, he formulated the laws of heredity, which enable us to predict which traits, and in what proportions, will show up in a particular generation, based upon the traits that have appeared in preceding generations.

Sources: Asimov, Isaac. Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery, p. 346; Encyclopedic of Science, p. 38; Gray, Peter. The Encyclopedia of the...

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