Every high school biology student learns of Gregor Mendel and his classic studies of inheritance. As the importance of genetics soared in the 20th century, so did Mendel's fame--except in his homeland. He was blacklisted in the former Soviet Union and its satellites as the founder of a "reactionary" discipline, and Mendelian genetics was declared a pseudoscience. Only now are efforts under way to pay him fitting tribute in the city in which he lived and worked all his adult life.

An Augustinian monk and later abbot at the Abbey of St. Thomas in Brno--once in Austria-Hungary, today part of the Czech Republic--

This article was originally published with the title Mendelmania Takes Off.

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