Paton, Yevhen
Paton, Yevhen or Evgenii [Патон, Євген], b 4 March 1870 in Nice, France, d 12 August 1953 in Kyiv. Welding scientist and construction technologist; full member of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR from 1929; father of Borys Paton. He graduated from the Dresden Polytechnical Institute (1894) and the Saint Petersburg Institute of Civil Engineers (1896) and was a professor at the Kyiv Polytechnical Institute (1904–39, with interruptions). While heading the Kyiv Bridge-Testing Laboratory (1921–31) he formulated fundamental scientific principles of bridge design and developed a scientific bridge-testing methodology. He published basic textbooks and monographs in the field and designed over 35 bridges and viaducts in 1896–1929, including a major bridge across the Dnipro River (1924). Paton is also considered to be the father of electric welding in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. In 1929 he organized at the All-Ukrainian Academy of Sciences a laboratory of electric welding technology, which in 1934 became the Institute of Electric Welding of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR. He served as director of the laboratory and institute until his death; today the institute bears his name. His contributions in the field of electric welding include arc welding and automation, welding apparatus design, and strength calculations of welded joints. He helped introduce electric welding technology into Soviet industry and founded the journal Avtomaticheskaia svarka, published in Kyiv from 1948.
Paton served as vice-president of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR from 1945 to 1952. He served on numerous scientific and political committees and published many books and technical articles on bridge building and welding. His selected works were published in Kyiv in 1970, and a biography of him was published there in 1961. In 1964 the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR established the Paton Prize for outstanding contributions in the field of materials science, particularly welding technology.
Lubomyr Onyshkevych
[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]