 The importance of Mendel 's work did not gain wide understanding until the 1890s , after his death , when other scientists working on similar problems re @-@ discovered his research . William Bateson , a proponent of Mendel 's work , coined the word genetics in 1905 . ( The adjective genetic , derived from the Greek word genesis — <unk> , " origin " , predates the noun and was first used in a biological sense in 1860 . ) Bateson both acted as a mentor and was aided significantly by the work of women scientists from Newnham College at Cambridge , specifically the work of Becky Saunders , Nora Darwin Barlow , and Muriel Wheldale Onslow . Bateson popularized the usage of the word genetics to describe the study of inheritance in his inaugural address to the Third International Conference on Plant Hybridization in London , England , in 1906 . 
