Brno opens week of celebrations marking 200th birth anniversary of Johann Gregor Mendel

A mass celebrated by at the Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Brno opens a week of celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Johann Gregor Mendel. The Augustinian monk, mathematician and biologist Johann Gregor Mendel, known as the father of genetics, was born in the Moravian metropolis on July 20th in 1822 . Brno is paying tribute to Mendel with numerous events, among them a concert featuring internationally renowned artists, the reconstruction of Mendel’s greenhouse at St. Thomas’ Abbey where he conducted his genetic research on pea plants and an international Mendel Genetics Conference at the university that bears his name.