Gregor Mendel conducted experiments with pea plants between 1856-1863. Through his experiments, he discovered two fundamental laws of inheritance: the Law of Segregation and the Law of Independent Assortment. The Law of Segregation states that alleles segregate and are passed to gametes independently. The Law of Independent Assortment states that different genes assort independently during gamete formation. Mendel's work laid the foundation for modern genetics although it was not widely recognized until the early 20th century.