The father of modern genetics is Gregor Mendel. Mendel was an Augustinian monk who conducted foundational experiments with pea plants in the mid-19th century. His work established the basic principles of heredity, including the concepts of dominant and recessive traits and the segregation of alleles during reproduction. Mendel's research went largely unrecognized during his lifetime but later became the cornerstone of genetic theory, influencing the fields of biology and heredity.