By Mary Hearty
The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina will be hosting a celebratory symposium on 20th July 2022 in honor of Gregory Mendel, the scientist who pioneered modern genetics.
The high-level ceremony which marks the 200th birthday of this great scientist will feature awards- Laureates of the Mendel Medal- for pioneering achievements in the fields of general and molecular biology or genetics. The Mendel Medal was instituted in 1965 in honor of Gregor Mendel (1822‒1884).
The Mendelian rules of inheritance, named after the Augustinian monk Gregor Mendel, are the foundation of modern genetics. His experiments with crossing peas in the Brno monastery garden have been the subject of many schoolbooks and teaching materials.
Speakers at the celebratory symposium include the British evolutionary biologist and geneticist Prof. Dr. Nicholas Barton, who received the Mendel Medal in 2013, and members of the Leopoldina Prof. Dr. Magdalena Götz, developmental biologist and stem cell researcher, who was awarded the Mendel Medal in 2019, the biophysicist and optogenetics expert Prof. Dr. Peter Hegemann, a laureate of 2017, and the human geneticist Prof. Dr. Stefan Mundlos, who received the Medal in 2021.
There will also be a contribution from Dr. Dame Jane Goodall in the form of a pre-recorded presentation. She was awarded the Mendel Medal in 1987 and has been a member of the Leopoldina since 1990.
