Igor Koval or Ihor Koval (, born February 27, 1955, Odessa, Ukrainian SSR) is a Ukrainian political scientist on international relations, Doctor of Political Sciences, professor, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine, corresponding member of the Ukrainian Academy of Political Sciences, rector of Odesa University. Biography Ihor Koval was born February 27, 1955, in Odessa and graduated high school No.3 (known also as Mariinsky Gymnasium) in 1972. He graduated from the historical faculty of Odesa University (1978). Historian, teacher of history and social science. He defended his thesis in Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. (1982). Assistant professor of modern and contemporary history (1978–1983); senior lecturer, assistant professor of modern and contemporary history, acting deputy dean of the History Faculty of I.I. Mechnikov ONU (1987–1996). Since 1996 - director of the Social Sciences Institute at Mechnykov ONU. He defended his doctoral thesis on "The conceptual design of the United States Eastern European policy at the beginning of global transformation process" at the World Economy and International Relations Institute at Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences. He received the Doctor of Political Sciences degree in 2000 and in 2001 became a professor. In 2010 he was elected as a rector of the I.I. Mechnykov Odessa National University (ONU). In 2015, by the decision of the University staff Ivan Koval was re-elected for a second term as a rector of ONU. Under the leadership of Rector Koval put into operation a new seven-story 6500 square meters academic building of the university (2013). Thanks to an investment strategy for the first time in the country's independence history it was in Mechnykov University where 90 families of University employees received state housing (2013). In 2010, the university launched a publishing house that produces up to 500 scientific and methodical literature units annually. In 2015 on the 150th anniversary of the ONU, University's history Museum was opened. Today, 28 scientific schools and 20 research laboratories are working at Mechnykov ONU. Social activity 1998 - 2004 - Igor Koval became Advisor of the Odessa Regional State Administration Chairman; 1997 - Director of the Odessa's applied social sciences program; 1997–1998 - Coordinator of the European research program in the framework of the EU TEMPUS-TACIC program; since 1999 - head of the scientific seminar on international relations theory of history and historiography at the House of Scientists (Odessa); 1995 - political media expert analyst. Titles and awards