Iakimov, Vasilii Larionovich

Born Jan. 28 (Feb. 9), 1870, in Kazan; died July 27, 1940, in Leningrad. Soviet parasitologist. Professor (1918).

Iakimov graduated from the Kazan Veterinary Institute in 1897. He was a staff member of the Institute of Experimental Medicine from 1902 to 1909 and the Central Veterinary Laboratory of the Ministry of the Interior (Petrograd) from 1914 to 1918. He organized the Institute of Veterinary Medicine and Zootechny (later called the Leningrad Veterinary Institute) in 1919 and became its first director. He founded a subdepartment of parasitology in the institute and served as the subdepartment’s head until his death.

Iakimov was one of the pioneers of the school of protozoology. In collaboration with his students he discovered many protozoa— including species of the genus Theileria in the Far East and Francaiella in the Northern Caucasus—that cause diseases in animals. Iakimov described 100 species of Coccidia, and he developed chemotherapy for treating babesiasis and many coccidioses.