Modern machines, mechanisms, apparatus and devices require the latest materials characterized by a complex of physical, chemical, operational and technological properties. The scientists of the Department of High-Temperature Materials and Powder Metallurgy of the Y. O. Paton Educational and Research Institute of Materials Science and Welding are working on the improvement of existing materials and the creation of new ones.
"Scientific and technical progress, which has fundamentally changed our lives, would not be possible without new materials," Tetiana Soloviova, an assistant of the department, an educantee of the scientific school "Materials Science of Refractory Compounds and Composites", is convinced. Recently, she was awarded a two-year scholarship of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine for young scientists as the author of current scientific and technical developments.
The scientist explains why she is interested in working in the field of materials science: "The development of composite materials that would combine such properties as high strength, hardness, corrosion resistance, and plasticity is an urgent task for the world materials science community. To obtain products from such materials, the components of the composite must be in a dispersed state, that is, in the form of small powder particles. Obtaining metal-ceramic composites (by mechanical mixing, radiation sintering, impregnation, spark-plasma sintering) using powder materials opens up the possibility of manufacturing parts of a complex shape with a wide range of functional properties."
Actually, her path of becoming a specialist and a person is no different from the stories of hundreds of women of the same age. In 2007, she graduated with a gold medal from Berezotocha Secondary School in the Poltava Oblast. During her school years, she worked on research projects that received recognition - the high school student became the prize-winner at the defense competition at the Junior Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Probably, that first practical experience in research influenced her further choice, and life led the inquisitive, diligent girl to the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. In 2007, she entered the Faculty of Engineering Physics (now the Y. O. Paton Educational and Research Institute of Materials Science and Welding) and immersed herself in the strange world of properties, structures and characteristics of materials. In 2018, under the guidance of the professor, now academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Petro Ivanovych Loboda, she successfully defended her PhD thesis on the topic "Influence of microstructure and stress-strain state on the physical and mechanical properties of LaB6-MeB2-Cu(Al) system composites".
To date, T.O. Soloviova, as part of the scientific body of the department, has created a new composite material for the production of contact welding electrodes (2 patents of invention and 2 utility model patents were obtained). The scientist has repeatedly been the executor of international and state-financed research works. The work was carried out in collaboration with Ukrainian scientists and foreign scientists from the Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia) and the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium). There, she improved her skills in working with high-precision equipment: equipment for electro plasma sintering (SPS) and X-ray phase analysis (XRD), electron microscopy (SEM), equipment for measuring compressive strength, sputtering of coatings, etc. Currently, Tetiana Oleksandrivna is the executor of the project financed by the National Research Foundation of Ukraine, and is working on obtaining coatings from composite materials from reinforced refractory compounds and high-entropy alloys that will be able to withstand extreme conditions of simultaneous temperature, mechanical load, abrasive wear and aggressive environments. In 2023, she became the project supervisor for young scientists.
No doubt, the young scientist publishes the results of her scientific research in scientific and technical periodicals and participates in international scientific and technical conferences. She is the co-author of the monograph "Binders and methods of their removal in the technology of injection molding of powders" and a study guide for students in the specialty "Materials Science". According to the Scopus database, her Hirsch index is 5, and the number of citations reaches 61. T.O. Soloviova usually uses the obtained experimental data when teaching the discipline "Methods for studying the physical properties of materials": "I always try to share the results obtained by me or my colleagues so that students see the practical value of the knowledge gained in classes."
In addition, the teacher is actively involved in career guidance work with schoolchildren, manages the "Materials Science and New Technologies" group of the Junior Academy of Sciences, publishes professional news in social networks and on the department's official resources. And since last year, she has also been actively involved in volunteer and charitable activities.
The scientist owes her success to her family and teachers: "Indeed, it was not possible without my efforts, but I owe a lot to my parents, teachers, supervisor, lecturers, and colleagues who shared their experience and always supported me. It is almost impossible to achieve success alone. A powerful team has to be along with you to look up to."