A monument to the prominent Ukrainian scientist and engineer Borys Paton was unveiled on November 26, 2021. It is at the entrance to the first, or as it is often called, main campus building of the National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute”.
The same day, a memorial plaque was opened at the campus building where he was born and spent the first eleven years of his life. There is also a plaque at the door of G. I. Denysenko Scientific and Technical Library of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, which now also bears the name of Borys Paton.
Commemoration with festivities of the most famous Ukrainian scientist of the second half of the XX - beginning of the XXI century took place on the eve of his birthday. On November 27, 2021, he would have turned 103 years old. And Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute is the very place where we should perpetuate the memory of Borys Paton. After all, he was a very close person to the University. And not only because he was born here or because his father - the famous scientist and Academician Evgeny Paton – had worked there for more than 35 years. The main reason is that Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute was his alma mater: Boris Paton graduated from Kyiv Industrial (Polytechnic) Institute in 1941, here in 1945 he presented his Ph.D. thesis, and in 1952 - his doctoral thesis. He never lost touch with his staff and students, and later became an Honorary Doctor of the University. He has always been a member - one of the most respected! - a large family of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
In general, according to Rector and Full Member of the NAS of Ukraine Michael Zgurovsky at the opening commemoration ceremony of Borys Paton at the University, the Patons and Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute have been tightly connected for 116 years! It is crucial to understand that Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute would be entirely different without these almost family ties. Imagine our Unversity without many scientific schools and laboratories, faculties, and without the names of famous Paton students, followers, and outstanding discoveries made within the University.
To the sound of "Melody" Myroslav Skoryk, Borys Paton’s granddaughter Olha Paton, President of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Anatolii Zagorodnii, Deputy Director of E.O. Paton Electric Welding Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Academician Leonid Lobanov, the project sponsor and is the general director of PrAT (PJSC) “Plasmotek” Viktor Slobodianiuk, the author of a sculpture and Honored Artist of Ukraine Anatolii Valiiev and Michael Zgurovsky uncovered the monument of the prominent engineer. The ceremony guests saw a bronze bust of the scientist installed on a granite pedestal. The words of the outstanding scientist have been engraved on pink granite: “Science is a way of life and a way of thinking”.
“This event is certainly significant not only to Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute but also to the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, and Ukraine in general. Borys Paton considered his alma mater, which he used to call “Glorious KPI”, to be something sacred. He always got interested in the University life, made sure that the University developed the latest research, which would improve current study programs and launch new ones,” said Anatolii Zagorodnii. “Perpetuating the memory of Borys Yevhenovych, Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute is doing a great job. We applaud and commend the University team, led by Academician Michael Zgurovsky. We will never forget Borys Paton and use his concepts in any case and problem.”
On behalf of Y. O. Paton Educational and Research Institute of Materials Science and Welding and Borys Paton’s students and followers, Leonid Lobanov addressed the participants. He spoke about the considerable scientific legacy by Borys Paton and the importance of his influence on the development of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, “Borys Paton has done a lot in almost 80 years of his beneficial work. Technologies, equipment, created materials find their implementation on the earth, under the water, and in space. They also identified areas of science progress in various industries. In recent years, medicine builds on Paton’s ideas in welding living tissues. Borys Paton, together with his father Evgeny Paton, created a unique Paton science school. This science school goes hand in hand with Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute …"
“I have been working on the monument for more than a year", said Anatolii Valiiev. “Besides a close resemblance to the scientist, I wanted to show the inner state, the inner wealth of this person. I wanted to reveal his features, for instance, his smiling face and penetrating gaze,” he shared his aspirations with the ceremony participants and journalists.
… A large memorial plaque with a bas-relief of the scientist by the sculptor Oleksandr Kuzmin appeared at the door of the campus building (37d Peremohy Avenue), where Borys Paton was born and grew older. At the beginning of the opening ceremony, Michael Zgurovsky mentioned that the Patons had a neighbor who moved into the apartment in the early 1920s. That neighbor was a famous Ukrainian mathematician, professor of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, and future academician repressed in the late '30s Mykhailo Kravchuk. "As Borys Paton personally told me," the Rector said before the veil was removed from the memorial plaque. “That neighbor became his first mathematics teacher". It is necessary to add that immediately after the ceremony, the sponsor of its creation, Academician of the NAS of Ukraine, President of the Junior Academy of Sciences Stanislav Dovgyi proposed to design another one dedicated to Mykhailo Kravchuk. And place it on the other side of the entrance door where the Patons and Kravchuks lived.
The last but not the least place to honor the memory of Boris Paton became G. I. Denysenko Scientific and Technical Library of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. According to the University Academic Council, it was named after Borys Paton. The museum entrance now has an elegant gray plaque with the inscription in English and Ukrainian: the National Technical University of Ukraine “Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute” “Borys Paton State Polytechnic Museum."
“It is symbolic that Yevhen Paton founded the Engineering Museum in 1905, which became the prototype of a modern museum,” said Michael Zgurovsky, “we continue this very significant tradition."
So, from now on Yevhen Paton in bronze, whose monument is on the Museum Square of the University Campus, will look at the museum he once founded and named after his son Borys Paton.
Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Honored Borys Paton
On the occasion of the 103rd birthday of Borys Paton, a monument was established.
Borys Paton's family lived at the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute campus for a long time, and it was here that the scientist received his higher education. He presented his diploma project on June 22, 1941.
During the opening ceremony, the guests mentioned Borys Paton as a friendly man and a genius scientist.
In addition, a bas-relief of Borys Paton was installed on the house where he was born and lived, and a memorial plaque at the State Polytechnic Museum, named after Borys Paton