Jean-Baptiste Van Mons (11 November 1765 Brussels — 6 September 1842 Leuven) was a Belgian physicist, chemist, botanist, horticulturist and pomologist, and professor of chemistry and agronomy at the State University of Leuven (1817-1830).

[1] Van Mons carried out the first recorded selective breeding of the European Pear through cycles of seed propagation.

[2] “I have found this art to consist in regenerating in a direct line of descent, and as rapidly as possible an improving variety, taking care that there be no interval between the generations.

He readily shared his observations and plants, and developed effective ways of exporting cuttings and seedlings as far away as the United States.

Louis XIV doted on pears, his greatest fruit love after figs and, not surprisingly, many varieties were cultivated at Versailles by his gardener Jean-Baptiste de la Quintinie.