January 17 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Volodymyr Hilchevsky, a prominent Ukrainian scientist in the field of mechanical engineering technology, Honored Education Worker of Ukraine, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, author of about 300 scientific papers and inventions.
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Volodymyr Vasylovych's entire working life was connected with our university. After returning from the front and a long treatment, in 1946 he entered the Mechanical Faculty of KPI (specialty “Cars and tractors”) and five years later successfully graduated. By the way, the newspaper “For the Soviet Engineer” #25 (95) of June 29, 1951, published a photo of KPI graduates who had defended their diploma projects with honors in front of the main building. After receiving his diploma with honors, he entered graduate school at the Department of Materials Resistance, and was guided into science by the future world-renowned academician Heorhii Stepanovych Pysarenko.
V.V. Khilchevsky's creative scientific activity at Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute began after his early defense of his PhD thesis in 1954. In 1970, he defended his doctoral dissertation. Both were prepared under the supervision of H.S. Pysarenko. Volodymyr Khilchevsky's research focus was on the study of energy dissipation in complex oscillations of systems and the creation of new advanced technologies.
From 1959 to 1961, V.V. Khilchevsky was the head of the Department of Materials Resistance of the KPI and for eighteen years he headed the Department of Materials Science and Technology of Structural Materials (1973-1991). In addition, for more than thirty years he was the head of the Preparatory Department, and he made a lot of efforts to organize the KPI branches in Chernihiv and Zhytomyr. Volodymyr Vasylovych was elected an academician of the Academy of Engineering Sciences, wrote about 300 scientific papers, including 5 monographs, 3 textbooks, a popular science book, and compiled a Russian-Ukrainian dictionary of mechanical engineering and general engineering. His military and peaceful work was honored with honorary titles and numerous state awards.
Business and honor. Exhibition “Scientific heritage of V.V. Hilchevsky” in the STL
On the day of celebration of the centenary of the Doctor of Technical Sciences, Head of the Department of Materials Resistance, and later - the Department of Materials Science and Technology of Structural Materials Volodymyr Hilchevsky, on January 17, in the hall 3.5 of the Scientific and Technical Library of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, a book exhibition “Scientific Heritage of Volodymyr Hilchevsky” was opened.
As Yevhenia Kulyk, Director of the NTL, reminded in her welcoming speech, the library has a long tradition of celebrating the names of famous Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute scientists who have made a significant contribution to national science. The name of a famous scientist, Honored Worker of Science and Technology of Ukraine, Honored Worker of Public Education of Ukraine, Academician of the Academy of Engineering Sciences of Ukraine, member of the National Committee of Ukraine for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Professor, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Honored Professor of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Volodymyr Khilchevsky is among them.
The exposition, which will be on display for the next few months, features scientific works, textbooks, patents, and a book of memoirs by Volodymyr Hilchevsky “From Soldier to Academician” signed by the author. The scientist's creative work includes about 300 scientific works of authorship and co-authorship and inventions.
Hilchevsky's memoirs “From Soldier to Academician,” which he published at the age of 80, take the reader back to Volodymyr Hilchevsky's youth during World War II. As an eighteen-year-old boy from Bakhmach, he participated in the battles at the Bukryn bridgehead, in the liberation of Korosten, Kyiv, Rivne, Zhovkva, and other Ukrainian cities and towns from the Nazi invaders as a private soldier-signalman of the 112th Rifle Division. Then he took part in the liberation of Polish lands, crossing the Vistula (Sandomierz bridgehead) and the Oder near Breslau (now Wroclaw), where he was seriously wounded. He memorized almost every moment of his year and a half of participation in the battles and more than a year of staying in military hospitals and described them in the first part of his memoirs, Me and the War. The second half of the book - “Me and KPI” - Volodymyr Vasylovych dedicated to his Alma Mater. The worlds of dreams and scientific research, first as a student, and later as a graduate student, teacher, associate professor, professor, academician, are on every page. And each page is a window into the unknown world, where the reader can witness the most interesting stories and find answers to questions that always interest the imagination of curious fans of national science. There are interesting pages that are useful for Kyiv scholars.
“I wrote my memoirs without using archival documents, I wrote about what my memory has preserved, and how it has preserved it. I'll call them memories, and let the reader reflect,” the author noted in the book's foreword... ‘If we keep in mind that I have been working at the KPI for more than 50 years, and every year an average of about 400 people passed through my hands, then somewhere in the world there are more than 20 thousand of them scattered.’... A considerable audience, isn't it?
V. Hilchevsky recalled: “My activities at the Institute were diverse. More precisely, it was complex: organizational, teaching, scientific, methodological, and educational - in approximately equal proportions.” He was the head of the Department of Materials Resistance, later the Department of Structural Materials Technology, and, in addition, the Preparatory Department of the KPI, which for a long time was the basic one in Ukraine, as the annual enrollment reached 550 students.
The opening of the exhibition was attended by the Chairman of the Academic Council of the University, Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Mykhailo Ilchenko, Director of the Educational and Research Institute of Materials Science and Welding (ERIW) named after E.O. Paton Ihor Volodymyrskyi, Head of the Department of Laser Engineering and Physical and Technical Technologies of the ERIW Oleksiy Kaglyak.
Mykhailo Ilchenko recalled that V. Khilchevsky actively worked on the development of educational, scientific, educational, design, economic and organizational areas of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. He also spoke about the fruitful work of the preparatory department headed by Volodymyr Khilchevsky, as well as the establishment of cooperation between industrial enterprises and the KPI administration in strengthening its material and technical base. According to M. Ilchenko, the star “Volodymyr Khilchevsky” will soon be unveiled on the Alley of Stars of the University.
Ihor Volodymyrskyi said that Professor Khilchevskyi participated in the development of the educational and scientific base of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, its research laboratories, including the faculty, which later became the basis for the organization of the Institute of Mechanical Engineering. His colleagues do not forget this.
The head of the department, which was once headed by V. Khilchevsky and is now called the Department of Laser Engineering and Physical and Technical Technologies, is Oleksiy Kaglyak. According to him, acquaintance with Volodymyr Vasylovych's scientific work shows that his contribution to the development of our university is very significant. Therefore, the staff of the department plans to organize a round table dedicated to the work of the famous scientist.
And V.V. Khilchevsky's daughter, Tetiana Luhova-Khilchevska, who once worked at the STL, presented the library with the first self-published edition of her father's Memoirs.
In conclusion, it should be noted that V. Khilchevsky was an extremely erudite man and one of the regular contributors to the Kyiv Polytechnic newspaper.