2019 Gregor Mendel Symposium

Welcome to the 2019 Mendel Symposium:

Gregor Mendel: From Hybridization to GMOs

A multidisciplinary discussion of Gregor Mendel’s plant hybridization research and the food supply challenges confronting our planet today.

Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Siˇ: On Care of Our Common Home calls us to respond in stewardship to the use of the earth’s bounty for the common good. Through beholding and upholding its integral ecology, we realize our responsibility to all creation. With our third Mendel Symposium, Villanova University is pleased to convene experts from multidisciplinary perspectives as we journey from  the Augustinian Friar Gregor Mendel’s research on plant hybridization to the current challenging conditions of food security, genetic engineering and preservation of plant biodiversity.

Villanova University, founded by the Augustinian Order in 1842, is a proud custodian of Gregor Mendel’s legacy. The Mendel Symposium was established in 2015 to further the discussion of Gregor Mendel, the 19th-century Augustinian friar, as an innovator whose work continues to be relevant and enlightening in today’s world.

Villanova University, which was founded by the Augustinian Order in 1842, plays a key role in sustaining Mendel’s legacy and caring for the planet in the face of global challenges. The University’s science center is named for Mendel, and, since 1929, prominent scientists, including several Nobel Prize recipients, have been honored with the Mendel Medal, given in recognition of outstanding scientific achievement accompanied by religious conviction.