Gregor Mendel is recognized as the founder of the science of genetics through his groundbreaking experiments with pea plants. He established fundamental principles of inheritance, including the laws of segregation and independent assortment. Mendel's meticulous crossbreeding experiments revealed how traits are passed from one generation to another, forming the basis for modern genetic theory. His work, largely unrecognized during his lifetime, gained prominence decades later and laid the framework for contemporary understanding of heredity and the science of genetics.