The JINR Directorate deeply regrets to announce, that on 19 August 2020 President of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Borys Yevhenovych Paton passed away.

Borys Yevhenovych Paton

14.11.1918 – 19.08.2020

Our condolences

On behalf of the Directorate and international staff of the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, I express sincere condolences on passing away Academician of the NAS of Ukraine and RAS Borys Yevhenovych Paton.

Borys Paton is an outstanding Soviet and Ukrainian scientist in the fields of metallurgy and metal technology, Doctor of Technical Sciences, Professor, Member and Honorary Member of a number of foreign academies of sciences, winner of many state and international awards and orders, winner of the Lenin Prize and the Stalin Prize of the III degree. He had been the permanent President of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for nearly 60 years. He made an invaluable contribution to the development of both national and world science. Borys Paton is the author of more than 1000 scientific papers, including 20 monographs, and more than 400 inventions. Academician Paton, “a man of legend”, was universally respected and had infallible authority. He was a great friend of our Institute.

Please, convey our deepest and sincere condolences, our words of sympathy and support to relatives, friends, and colleagues of Borys Paton.

The fond memory of this brilliant scientist and man will remain forever in our hearts.

JINR Director, RAS Academician V. A. Matveev

On 19 August, RAS Academician Borys Yevhenovych Paton, a world-renowned materials scientist in the fields of metallurgy, metal technology and electric welding, passed away at the age of 102.

Since 1962, Borys Yevhenovych had been the permanent President of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, was a full member of the European Academy, the International Academy of Sciences, Education, Industry and Arts (USA), the International Academy of Astronautics (USA), the National Academy of Applied Sciences (Russia), the Academy of Security Issues, Defence and Law (Russia), Petrovskaya Academy of Sciences and Arts (St. Petersburg, Russia). Academician Paton was the President of the International Association of the Academies of Sciences (IAAS) from 1993 to 2017.

B. Ye. Paton headed the International Scientific Council for Welding and Related Technologies, was a member of the International Council for Scientific and Technical Development of the CIS Countries. He chaired the Coordination Council of the interstate programme “Highly reliable pipeline transport”. He was a member of the Board of the International Fuel and Energy Association and the Board of Trustees of the International Nuclear Safety Foundation. He was a member of editorial boards of numerous scientific and technical journals and other periodicals, held the positions of the chairman of the Interdepartmental Council for Coordination of Fundamental Research and the chairman of the Scientific-Coordination and Expert Council for Source and Safety Issues of Operation of Structures, Constructions and Machines, the chairman of the Committee on Space Research, the chairman of the Committee on System Analysis of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

When both B. Ye. Paton and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine celebrated the 100th anniversary, Borys Yevhenovych recalled the creation of IAAS: “The necessity for multilateral cooperation to join efforts of a large number of academies of sciences was obvious. It was also evidenced by the rich experience of operation of such famous international communities as the International Council of Scientific Unions, the Third World Academy of Sciences and some others. In the end, academies of sciences came to the conclusion that it was necessary to establish an association. IAAS member academies were absolutely different in terms of the scales, but they created a full-fledged scientific core. Thank God we have not lost thus the contacts between the academies.”

At the 10th meeting of the Council of the International Association of Academies of Sciences that took place on 21-22 June 2000 in Dubna, Borys Yevhenovych noted in the interview for the JINR Weekly Newspaper a significant role of our Institute: “The IAAS should not be limited by the CIS countries only, it should strive for active interaction with other scientific centres, countries. For example, fruitful cooperation with JINR, some contacts with UNESCO. The IAAS was pleased to learn about ratification of the Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and JINR. It is necessary to study this Agreement so that to use it for our own experience when formalizing the IAAS location in Ukraine.”

B. Ye. Paton was called the Everest of science. He published his first scientific paper in 1948. For almost 80 years of work, he authored almost 1,000 scientific papers and registered 400 patents in 30 countries. Borys Yevhenovych is twice a Hero of Socialist Labour, a laureate of the Lenin and other state prizes; he was given numerous state awards of the USSR and the Russian Federation and awarded the Lomonosov Gold Medal and Korolev Gold Medal.

His passing was a great loss for world science, as RAS President Alexander Sergeev noted in his commemoration speech. “Academician Paton was an outstanding scientist who had proposed numerous ideas in the fields of modern metallurgy. He had headed the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine for numerous decades and, of course, he was very worried about the severance of ties between scientists from different countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union.”