Outstanding scientist in the field of energy and heat engineering, doctor of technical sciences (1947), professor (1931), Dean of the Department of Energy (Thermal Engineering) of the Kyiv Industrial Institute, Head of the Department of Steam Engine. Rector of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (09.1955 -12.1955), Rector of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (1955-1969), academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1950), academician-secretary of the Department of Physical and Technical Problems of Energy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1970-1978), until September 1983 – Head of the Department of Thermal Processes of the Energy Devices of the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR (1967), deputy chairman of the Supreme Council of the USSR of the seventh convocation (1967).
Ivan Trofimovich Shvets was born to a peasant family in the Mikhailivskyi khutir, in the Chernihiv Governorate. After graduating from the Sumy Real School in 1919, he worked on the railway as a worker and the head of the mobilization department of the station Mikhailivskyi Khutir. In January 1921, he joined the Red Army. In September of that year, Gubkom of the Kyiv region sent him to study at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. After graduating from the mechanical faculty in 1927, he became a postgraduate student and a lecturer at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute.
In 1929 he defended his PhD thesis and received the title of senior research fellow. He worked as an associate professor of Department of Heat Engineering of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. During the reorganization and division of Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute into the branch institutes (1930), he was dean of Department of Heat Engineering of the Industrial Institute (Kyiv), the Energy Faculty of the Kyiv Power Engineering Institute.
In 1939 he became one of the initiators of the establishment of a branch of the Kharkiv Institute of Energy of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (later - the Institute of Heat and Power Engineering of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR) in Kyiv and was its head until 1955.
In 1947 he defended his doctoral dissertation. His main scientific works concern the theory, principles of work and design of thermal motors and power plants. Areas of scientific activity include the development of thermal industrial plants; steam and gas turbines and jet equipment; heat power equipment of enterprises; and integrated use of energy resources of Ukraine. Ivan Trofimovich Shvets contributed significantly to the solution of the problems of heat exchange and cooling elements of high-temperature power plants. He organized the process of training specialists and creation of textbooks and manuals.
He was awarded two Orders of the Badge of Honor (1944, 1948), two Orders of the Red Banner of Labour (1961, 1981), the Orders of Lenin (1967), the Orders of the October Revolution, and various medals.