Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian monk who lived from 1822 to 1884 and conducted breeding experiments with pea plants. He studied the inheritance of certain traits over multiple generations of pea plants and discovered the basic laws of inheritance, including that traits are passed from parents to offspring in discrete units and that some traits may be dominant over others. His work established the foundation of the modern science of genetics although it was not widely recognized until years after his death.