Paton, Boris

Born Nov. 27, 1918, in Kiev. Soviet metallurgist and specialist in welding technology. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR (1958) and the academy’s president since 1962. Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1962) and member of the academy’s presidium since 1963. Hero of Socialist Labor (1969). Member of the CPSU since 1952.

Paton, the son of E. O. Paton, graduated from the Kiev Industrial Institute in 1941. He has been affiliated with the Institute of Electrical Welding of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR since 1942. Beginning as a research worker, he headed a laboratory there from 1942 to 1950, was assistant director from 1950 to 1953, and has been director since 1953.

Under Paton’s supervision, a fundamentally new method of welding called electroslag welding was developed. Electroslag welding has permitted the production of unique high-pressure vessels for the power and chemical industries and the manufacture of large assemblies for ships and hydroelectric generators and for other purposes. Paton has done much to introduce modern methods of arc welding in various branches of the national economy. Under his direction comprehensive programs have been worked out for the development of the welding industry and of science and technology in the USSR. Paton proposed a new means for improving the quality of special steels and alloys —electroslag remelting. He headed research on the use of welding heat sources in special-purpose smelting plants and on the creation of a new branch of quality metallurgy known as special-purpose electrometallurgy.

Paton was a candidate member of the Central Committee of the CPSU from 1961 to 1966 and has been a member of the Central Committee since 1966. He was a deputy to the sixth through ninth convocations of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In 1973 and 1974 he was deputy chairman of the Soviet of the Union of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

Paton received the State Prize of the USSR in 1950 and the Lenin Prize in 1957. He is a member of the Bulgarian Academy (1969) and the Czechoslovak Academy (1973). He has been awarded the Order of Lenin twice, the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, and several medals.