Entitled: "Gregor Mendel among His Fellow monks." Gregor Johann Mendel (July 20, 1822 - January 6, 1884) was an Austrian scientist and Augustinian friar who gained posthumous fame as the founder of the new science of genetics. Mendel conducted experiments in a monastery in the 1860's with garden peas, working out the law of heredity based on "factors" (genes) that decide which characteristics are passed from parent to offspring. His documented work was entitled: "Experiments with Plant Hybrids". Mendel had demonstrated that the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants follows particular patterns, now referred to as the laws of Mendelian inheritance. Although the significance of Mendel's work was not recognized until the turn of the 20th century, the independent rediscovery of these laws formed the foundation of the modern science of genetics. After he was elevated as abbot in 1868, his scientific work largely ended. Mendel died in 1884, at age 61, from chronic nephritis. No photographer credited, undated.