About Leopold Koss
Lived 1920 – 2012 (aged 91). Leopold Koss was a Polish pathologist, physician, cell biologist and physiologist, known for Cytopathology.
Leopold George Koss (born Leopold Kon; October 2, 1920 – September 11, 2012) was an American physician, pathologist, and professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He has been called "one of the founding fathers for the field of cytopathology".
Biography Koss was born in Langfuhr, Poland. He escaped Nazi persecution in 1942 by entering Switzerland, where he was eventually allowed to continue studying medicine. He received his M.D. degree from the University of Bern, Switzerland in 1946. His parents and sisters were murdered in the Holocaust.
He arrived in the United States in 1947, and did a residency in pathology at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. From 1952 to 1970, minus a stint in the Korean War, he was on staff at the Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center. In 1973, he was named Chairman of the Department of Pathology at Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Works His textbook Koss' Diagnostic Cytology and its Histopathologic Bases, in its fifth edition as of 2005, is considered a classic in the field of cytopathology.
Diagnostic Cytology and Its Histopathologic Bases, 5th rev. edition 2006 Tumors of the Urinary Bladder, 1975, Supplement, 1984 Aspiration Biopsy: Cytologic Interpretation and Histologic Bases, 2d rev. edition 1992 Introduction to Gynecologic Cytology, 1999
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Important facts
Contemporaries
People whose lives overlapped Leopold Koss's
Frequently asked questions
Who was Leopold Koss?
Expert in cytopathology
When was Leopold Koss born?
Leopold Koss was born on 2 October 1920 in Wrzeszcz.
When did Leopold Koss die?
Leopold Koss died on 13 September 2012 in New York City.
What was Leopold Koss's occupation?
Leopold Koss was a pathologist, physician, cell biologist and physiologist.
What was Leopold Koss known for?
Leopold Koss was known for Cytopathology.
What nationality was Leopold Koss?
Leopold Koss was Polish.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Leopold Koss. https://biography.guide/leopold-koss/
MLA: "Leopold Koss." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/leopold-koss/.
Chicago: "Leopold Koss." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/leopold-koss/.
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