Borys Paton

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Borys Yevhenovych Paton (27 November 1918 – 19 August 2020) was a Ukrainian scientist who led the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine from 1962 until his death at age 101. He and his father, Evgeny Paton, were famous for their work in electric welding.

Paton was born in Kyiv and studied at Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, graduating as an engineer in 1941. During World War II he worked on electric circuits at a factory in Gorky, helping to boost tank production. He earned a doctoral degree in 1952, joined the Communist Party the same year, and in 1953 became head of the Paton Institute of Electric Welding, founded by his father.

In 1958 Paton joined the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He was a member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union from 1963 to 1991. He was offered to head the USSR Academy in Moscow but chose to stay in Kyiv. He also served as a deputy in the Soviet parliament from 1962 to 1989.

Paton advised Soviet leaders not to build the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1998 he became the first person to be named Hero of Ukraine. He joined Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council in 2008, acted as a political adviser in 2010, and signed the Letter of Ten in 2011 in support of President Yanukovych. He was reappointed as chairman of the National Academy of Sciences in 2015, but stepped down in 2020.

Paton held on to a nuanced view of Ukraine’s past and, in 2019, spoke against decommunization policies. He died in Kyiv and was buried at Baikove Cemetery.

Paton published more than 1,000 works, including about 20 monographs, and held over 400 inventions. He was married to Olha Paton and had a daughter, Yevheniya, who was also a scientist; Yevheniya died in 2009, followed by his wife in 2013. After that, his granddaughter Olha cared for him.

His main scientific legacy includes electroslag welding, the use of welding heat sources to improve metal quality, and the creation of special electrometallurgy. He also initiated research into welding for space technology.