Text 4. Stepan tymoshenko

Stepan Prokopovych Tymoshenko was a Ukrainian engineer reputed to be the father of modern engineering mechanics. A founding member of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences, S. P. Tymoshenko wrote seminal works in the areas of engineering mechanics, elasticity and strength of materials, many of which are still widely used today.

In the fall of 1906 he was appointed to the Department of Strength of Materials at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. The return to his native Ukraine turned out to be an important part of his career and also influenced his future personal life. From 1907 to 1911 as a professor at the Polytechnic Institute he did research in the earlier variant of the Finite Element Method of elastic calculations, the so-called Rayleigh method. During those years he also pioneered work on buckling, and published the first version of his famous Strength of materials textbook. He was elected dean of the Division of Structural Engineering in 1909.

In 1911 he signed a protest against Minister of Education Kasso and was fired from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. At the same time he was awarded the D. I. Zhuravski prize of the St. Petersburg Ways of Communication Institute that helped him survive after losing his job. He went to St. Petersburg where he worked as a lecturer and then a Professor in the Electrotechnical Institute and the St. Petersburg Institute of the Railways (1911–1917). During that time he developed the theory of elasticity and the theory of beam deflection, and continued to study buckling. In 1918 he returned to Kyiv and assisted Volodymyr Vernadsky in establishing the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences – the oldest academy among the Soviet republics other than Russia.

The Tymoshenko Medal established in 1957 honours S. P. Tymoshenko as the world-renowned authority in the field of mechanical engineering and it commemorates his contributions as author and teacher. The Tymoshenko Medal is given annually for distinguished contributions in applied mechanics.

In addition to his textbooks S. Tymoshenko wrote Engineering Education in Russia and an autobiography, As I Remember, the latter was first published in Russian in 1963 with its English translation appearing in 1968.

Text 5. Viktor trefilov

Viktor Ivanovych Trefilov was born on August 6, 1930, in Baku. In 1947 he graduated from high-school with honours and chose to be a metallurgical engineer, to specialize in thermal treatment of metals. V. Trefilov graduated from the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute with distinction.

The President of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Vitalii Nikiforovych Gridnev, insisted that the talented student took post-graduate studies, supervised his research, and, after Viktor Trefilov successfully defended his thesis, offered him to work as a scientist at the Institute of Metal Physics, where Gridnev had been appointed Director.

V. Gridnev and V. Trefilov are a remarkable example of teacher and student. Viktor Trefilov first pursued the important and extensive research area of his teacher but soon found his own path: physics of strength and plasticity in an area of high-temperature creep-resistant and refractory metals and alloys.

In 1962 V. Trefilov was appointed Scientific Director at the Institute of Metal Physics. He created a team that laid the foundation for his scientific school. In I965 he defended his doctoral thesis at the Institute of Low-Temperature Physics and Engineering (Kharkiv).

Trefilov's scientific efforts and managerial capabilities, ingenuity, dynamism, and commitment were highly appreciated by the Academy and by the Director of the Institute for Problems of Materials Science (IPMS), Academician Frantsevych, who proposed that Viktor Trefilov should be his successor as the Director of the Institute.

V. I. Trefilov had been the Director of the IPMS from 1973 to 2001. In those years, the IPMS became the leading organization in powder metallurgy, and V. Trefilov was appointed Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Council on Powder Metallurgy under the USSR State Committee for Science and Technology. The leadership was gained through successful, extensive research and applied efforts of the Institute. Under the direction of Viktor Trefilov, the IMPS promoted powder metallurgy (set up works and shops) in the USSR. He was one of the first General Directors (1986) for Interindustry Scientific and Technical Associations for Powder Metallurgy.

In 1974 V. Trefilov became an academician and the Vice President of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and the leader of the Section of Physical and Engineering and Mathematical Sciences in the Presidium of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences. He had been an unusual Vice President for more than 20 years, whose workday continued to 10 or 11 p.m. He was visited by people who hoped for and found his attention and support should there be a matter or a scientific or engineering idea worthy of consideration.

In 1987 V. Trefilov became a full member of the USSR Academy of Sciences in the Metallurgy and Powder Metallurgy area.

Trefilov's proactive attitude urged him to pay attention to global ecological, energy, and other crucial issues in the country. In the first years after the Chernobyl disaster he was the Chairman of the Emergency Commission for Chernobyl Accident in the Presidium of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic.