Kosin, Igor Leonid, 1911-

Professor of Poultry Sciences and Foreign Languages, Washington State University.

Igor Leonid Kosin was born in 1911 in Vladivostok, Russia. He and his Russian parents resided in Peking and Manchuria before immigrating to a poultry farm near Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1928.

In 1934, he received his Bachelor of Science in poultry science and went on to earn a Master of Science in genetics in 1936, both from the University of British Columbia. He further pursued his study of genetics at the University of Chicago and was awarded a doctorate in 1943. Dr. Kosin employed his research skills as a geneticist for the Canadian government on a research farm near Ottawa from 1939 until 1946.

Kosin moved to Pullman, Washington in 1946 to begin a thirty-year career of teaching and genetic research at Washington State University. His contributions to the poultry sciences brought him many awards from scientific groups and the poultry industry.

In 1959 he became a part-time instructor of Russian language in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. Two years later he relinquished his poultry science teaching duties for a full time foreign language professorship, while maintaining his genetic research activities.

Throughout his tenure at W.S.U., Professor Kosin actively participated on faculty committees concerned with university organization and governance. He retired in 1977 after a long and distinguished career.