The founders of genetics are primarily credited to Gregor Johann Mendel, an Austrian Augustinian friar, who conducted groundbreaking experiments on pea plants between 1856 and 1863. Mendel's work, published in 1866, established the fundamental laws of inheritance, demonstrating that traits are passed from parents to offspring in predictable patterns through discrete units, now called genes. He introduced key concepts such as dominant and recessive traits and formulated what are now known as Mendelian inheritance laws

. Although Mendel's work was largely ignored during his lifetime, it was rediscovered around 1900 by three botanists—Hugo de Vries, Carl Correns, and Erich von Tschermak—who independently confirmed his findings. This rediscovery marked the formal establishment of genetics as a scientific discipline. The term "genetics" itself was coined later, in 1906, by English biologist William Bateson, who was an early advocate of Mendel's principles

. In summary:

• Founder: Gregor Johann Mendel
• Key discovery period: 1856–1863 (published 1866)
• Rediscovery and formal establishment: Around 1900 by de Vries, Correns, and von Tschermak
• Term "genetics" coined: 1906 by William Bateson

Mendel’s pioneering work laid the foundation for modern genetics, which has since evolved to include molecular genetics, gene mapping, and genome sequencing