Hugo de Vries

Hugo Marie de Vries was born in the Netherlands on 16 February 1848 and trained as a botanist. Working in the 1890s, he rediscovered the laws of heredity independently, apparently unaware that Gregor Mendel had already documented them decades earlier. De Vries suggested the concept of genes, introduced the term "mutation" into biology, and built a mutation theory of evolution around these sudden hereditary changes. His work helped lay the foundation for modern genetics, even as history shuffled him into Mendel's shadow. He died on 21 May 1935.