Ihor Aleksieienko
Director-General of the Scientific and Production Enterprise “Publishing House“ Naukova Dumka” of the NAS of Ukraine, Candidate of Biological Sciences, Honored Worker of Culture of Ukraine
DOI https://doi.org/10.37837/2707-7683-2018-53
Abstract. The article describes the life path and scientific work of Borys Paton who celebrated 100th birthday this year. It is interesting to know that on the day of his birthday, namely on November 27, the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine was established in Kyiv. This coincidence appeared to be symbolic.
Having graduated from school and then Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, electrician engineer Borys Paton began working in the factory in Horkyi city in 1941, and then in 1942 – in the Urals in Nyzhniy Tagil city, whereto the Institute of Electric Welding was transferred. Thenceforth, the rest of B. E. Paton life was associated with the Institute and the Academy.
The personality of B. E. Paton was forming mainly under the influence of his father. Son of Ye. O. Paton inherited his father’s traits of character that preconditioned the formation of the gifted person – persistent work as a basis for life, demanding attitude towards himself and his employees, the ability to identify the major targets and achieve them persistently, the ability to create a team of like-minded people.
In the second part of the last century the Academy under the leadership of B. Paton trans-formed into a powerful scientific and technical institution. Time has forced the country to solve urgent scientific and technical challenges, which were brilliantly resolved by Ukrainian researchers in the 60–90s of the 20th century. The radical reorganization of the Academy was a foundation for this process, which enabled to introduce the results of scientific studies into the production process in the form of new technologies, materials and methods. At that time state support was determined by the urgency and importance of new implementations.
Being a patriot of Ukraine, B. Ye. Paton once firmly refused to hold the position of the President of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR despite the persistent “proposal” of the authorities. After Ukraine has gained its independence in 1991, the state began paying less attention to science, significantly reducing its funding. Possibilities for researches of Ukrainian scientists deteriorated. Mass media began writing articles about the need for radical reformation of the Academy, up to the transformation of academic science into science at the higher education establishments.
In this complicated situation, the Academy began searching for new forms of effective scientific research. In the opinion of many scholars, the Academy’s further existence at that time in many respects owed to the activity and authority of B. E. Paton.
Currently the Academy experiences hard times and number of its members decreased thrice. However, scientists have found new modes of work, which first and outmost were represented in cooperation with foreign colleagues. Even today Ukrainian researches have scientific achievements of the world scale. So, we would like to wish Borys Yevhenovych strong health and that all his dreams come true.
Keywords: NAS of Ukraine, Paton, USSR, reformation, scientific thought, scientific and technical institution.