Text 1. Borys Paton

Borys Paton is an outstanding scientist in the field of welding, metallurgy and technology of metals and materials science, prominent public figure and talented organiser of science, academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Academy of Sciences of the USSR and Russian Academy of Sciences, professor, honoured scientist and technologist of the Ukrainian SSR, laureate of the Lenin Prize and State Prizes of the USSR and Ukraine, Twice Hero of the Socialist Labour of the USSR, Hero of Ukraine, participant in the Great Patriotic War, and liquidator of accident at the Chernobyl NPP. Together with his father Yevgen Paton, Borys Paton established the world-known Paton scientific school. The international authority of Borys Paton is a result of his versatile and extraordinarily fruitful scientific and engineering activity, and of his great effort to use results of the fundamental research for solving problems of the society. For over 55 years Borys Paton has been heading the internationally recognised research and technology centre – the Paton Electric Welding Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, and since 1962 he has been a permanent President of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (now the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine).

Borys Paton was born on the 27^th of November 1918 in the family of Ye. O. Paton, a professor of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. In those years Yevgen Paton was a well-known expert in the area of bridge construction and headed the bridge faculty. He was the author of original bridge designs and engineering structures, and was in charge of their construction. Being experienced in cooperation with many machine-building enterprises and participating in major construction projects, he was well aware of the strong dependence of progress in these industries upon utilisation of new technology for materials joining – welding.

To make welding a reliable technological process, it was necessary to conduct comprehensive investigations in mechanics of welded structures, metallurgical processes, welding metal science and physics of the arc discharge, as well as develop welding equipment, consumables and new welding technologies. To address all these problems, the Electric Welding Institute was founded in 1934 by the initiative of Ye. O. Paton within the system of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.

The intensive working activity of the father absorbed in solving a large number of scientific and technical problems, as well as in organisational matters, was witnessed by Borys Paton and, undoubtedly, affected formation of his character and attitude to work and people.

In 1941 Borys Paton graduated from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and was assigned to the “Krasnoe Sormovo” plant in Gorky. In the following year he was appointed to the Electric Welding Institute, which was evacuated at that time to the Uralvagonzavod Plant in Nyzhnii Tagil. It was that famous Plant where in 1942 Borys Paton started his manufacturing and scientific activity. From then, for 11 years, Borys Paton was working together with his father; those were the years of his growth as a scientific worker and researcher, and then a leader of a large scientific team. Borys Paton proved to be one of the most talented students and a worthy successor of his father. He continued and brilliantly developed the work started by Ye. O. Paton, he became the Director of the Paton Electric Welding Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR.

One of the basic principles set forth by Ye. O. Paton when founding the Institute, and further developed by Borys Paton, is conducting a purpose-oriented fundamental research and keeping a close connection between science and manufacturing. This principle has been consistently implemented during an almost 75 years’ history of the Institute. His enthusiasm, unique capacity for work and consideration for every staff member create a good working atmosphere at the Institute. An example is the development of electroslag welding. While developing a method for field welding, G. Z. Voloshkevych, an associate of the Institute, discovered that molten slag with the electric current flowing through it could be used as a heat source. The process was called the electroslag one. Borys Paton predicted a great future for this process. He managed to concentrate the efforts of the work team on solving the most important problems of electroslag welding. As a result, a new promising method for welding heavy sections of metal was developed within the short terms, which was verified under production conditions and made suitable for extensive application.

Many years of selfless efforts of the Institute staff led by Borys Paton have won it the worldwide recognition. In 1962, Borys Paton was elected a Full Member (academician) of the USSR Academy of Sciences in speciality “Metallurgy and Technology of Metals”. In that same year the scientists of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR unanimously elected Borys Paton the President of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. Profound understanding of the role of science in society, its goals and objectives, high international scientific authority, devotion to science, inexhaustible energy and high moral standards, social and political activity, and experience of leading a large scientific staff became the decisive arguments for election of Borys Paton to the post of the President of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Since that time, for 46 years he has been at the head of this leading scientific organisation of Ukraine. In keeping with the Charter of the Academy, he was nine times unanimously re-elected the President of the Academy.

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