Physical engineering faculty

The KPI of today is a large training-and-research center, a leader of the Ukraine's technical higher education and Physical Engineering Faculty is one of its leading faculties. Physical Engineering (former Metallurgical, Mechanical-technological, Physical-technological) Faculty was organised in December 1944 when KPI came back to Kyiv from Taschkent. But the training of the metallurgists has been started in KPI since the time of its foundation in 1898 at the Chemical Faculty. There were well-known scientists among the organizers of KPI Metallurgical School - V.P. Feschenko-Chopivskiy, M.M. Dobrohotov, V.E. Vasiliev, K. I. Vashchenko, G. V. Samsonov, V. M. Gridnev, I. P. Bardin, V. I. Yavoyskiy, V. N. Svechnikov, and others.

PEF was founded in the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute in order to improve training of Bachelors of Science in Engineering for metallurgy and to provide numerous Institutes of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences with highly skilled specialists. The Honoured worker of Science and Technique of Ukraine, Prof. K.I.Washchenko was the organizer and the first dean of the Faculty during 15 years. After him at the head of the Faculty were: assistant Prof. A.F. Chigskiy (1959-1974), the Honoured worker of the High School of Ukraine, Prof. D.F. Chernega (1974-1988), Doctor of Technics, Prof. A.P. Syomik (1988-2000). Nowadays the PEF is headed by Prof. P.I. Loboda.

The Faculty trains Bachelors, Specialists and Masters in the field of metallurgy and materials physics. For the time of its existence PEF has trained more than 6000 highly skilled specialists, 15 Members and Corresponding Members of Ukrainian AS, 65 State Prize Laureates, more than 100 Doctors and 500 Candidates of Science. The number of graduates of PEF constitutes 4 % of all graduates of the KPI.

A characteristic of any institution of higher education is its graduates. And the more famous scientists, production managers or just prominent persons among them, the higher its prestige. In this sense our university has something to be proud of. Their metallurgy-related professions at the KPI acquired:

• well-known scientist - academician of the USSR's Academy of Sciences, specialist in coke chemistry N. P. Chizhevsky;

• vice-president of the USSR's Academy of Sciences, constructor and director of the Kuznetsk Iron and Steel Works, founder and director of the Metals Institute of the USSR's Academy of Sciences and the Central Ferrous Metals Research Institute, laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes, Hero of Socialist Labor I. P. Bardin;

• directors of the institutes of the NAS: for Material Science Problems – academician V. I. Trefilov; Physics of Metals - academician V. V. Nemoshkalenko, Physics and Technology Institute of Metals and Alloys - academician V. L. Naidek, Gas - academician I. N. Karp;

• former directors of the Ukraine's Institute of Metals L. N. Kushnir, I. V. Ostapchuk;

• former minister of higher and specialized secondary education of Ukraine - V. A. Koval;

• academicians P. S. Kisly, Y. V. Naidich, V. V. Skorokhod;

• corresponding members of the NAS - V. P. Bondarenko, G. P. Borisov, G. G. Gnesin, Y. V. Milman, S. P. Oshkaderov, L. A. Loznyak, V. A. Pereloma, S. A. Firstov, V. T. Cherepin;

• the General Director of the well-known firm "KamAz" N. I. Bekh,

• G. V. Plyushch (JSC "Ukrainskiye Yuveliry")

• R. V. Belan (Kuznetsk Iron and Steel Works),

• Dr. Eng., Prof. N. A. Budagyants (Lutugino Roll Production Association),

• A. A. Gerasimenko (Iron and Steel Works "Zaporozhstal"),

• A .A. Shokul (Iron and Steel Works "Azovstal"),

• S. A. Donskoi (Yermakovsky Ferroalloys Plant),

• I. P. Romanenko (JSC "Uralgidromash"),

• V. G. Udovenko (Nizhni-Tagil Iron and Steel Works),

• V. F. Polyanichko (K.Liebknecht Production Association, St.Petersburg) and others.

It's no secret that the quality of specialist training is determined by the skills of teachers, their scientific and pedagogical potential. And the metallurgy-related disciplines at the KPI were always taught by outstanding scientists.

The organizer of the preparation of the metallurgy-related disciplines at the University and the first head of the Metallurgy Department was the famous scientist Vasiliy Petrovich Izhevsky who had been invited to teach at the KPI upon graduation from the Physics-and-Mathematics Faculty of the Moscow State University. The Department's graduates include such renowned scientists as corresponding member of Academy of Sciences V. Y. Vasilyev, professors I. A. Feshchenko-Chopivsky, K. I. Vashchenko, S. N. Karamzin, V. P. Mashkovets, M. F. Olexeyenko, F. M. Shamrai, and others.

It is hard to overestimate the contribution into the coming-to-be and further development of the metallurgical education at the KPI and in the Ukraine as a whole by the Honored Scientist and Engineer of Ukraine, Dr Eng., Prof. Konstantin Illyich Vashchenko, (1901-1992), known all over the world as a specialist in the field of high-strength iron. It was K. I. Vashchenko on whose initiative the Metallurgy Faculty was created at the KPI. Of course, he became the first dean of the faculty.

When the faculty was organized its departments were headed by: Corresponding Member of the AS V. Y. Vasiliyev - Metallurgy of Cast Iron; academician N. N. Dobrokhotov – Steel Metallurgy and Industrial Furnaces, academician V. N. Svechninov - Metal Science and Heat Treatment; K. I. Vashchenko - Ferrous and Nonferrous Metalcasting; (K. I. Vashchenko headed the Department from 1944 to 1974). And further on the leading scientists were drawn to the work on organizing new departments and disciplines: the Metal Heat Treatment Department was headed by Prof. V. N. Gridnev (later on Rector of the KPI, Director of the Institute of Physics of Metals of the Ukraine's NAS, Member of the Ukraine's NAS); the training of specialists at the Powder Metallurgy and Rare Metals Department was headed by: academician I. M. Fedorchenko and Corresponding Member of the Ukraine's NAS, Honored Scientist and Engineer of Ukraine, laureate of Ukraine's State Prize G. V. Samsonov.

For extending the students' knowledge in the field of metallurgy the following facilities were created at the faculty: the Research Laboratory for New Technologies in Metallurgy headed by Corresponding Member of the NAS, laureate of the State Prize G.G.Yefimenko, and the Department of Physical-and-Chemical Fundamentals of Metals Technology headed by the Ukraine's Honored Educator, Prof. D. F. Chernega.

Besides the above listed famous scientists and specialists, the faculty's departments were headed by: laureate of the USSR's State Prize, Prof. A. A. Sigov; Honored Scientist and Engineer of Russia, laureate of Russia's and the Ukraine's State Prizes, Prof. V. I. Yavoisky; Honored Educators of Ukraine O. M. Byalik, A. V. Belotsky, Prof. V. G. Permyakov, V. S. Kocho, V. G. Gorbach, S. I. Sidorenko, V. Y. Shmoko, S. P. Doroshenko and others.

The teachers and other personnel of the faculty have high scientific potential. Practically one fourth of the teachers (23%) are professors, doctors of engineering. The total of the faculty's teachers holding degrees and titles amounts to about 80%. The Faculty has never received any claims for replacement of our graduates. Apart from the aforesaid, it is explained by the fact that the traditions initiated by the faculty's founders have always been maintained.

It's already for more than 25 years that each department of the faculty has its own branch at one of the institutes of the Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences:

• the Department of Ferrous and Nonferrous Metals Foundry - at the Physics and Technology Institute of Metals and Alloys (PTIMA);

• the Department of Physics of Metals -at the Institute of Physics of Metals;

• the Department of High-Temperature Materials and Powder Metallurgy - at two institutes: the Institute of Material Science Problems and the Bakul Institute of Superhard Metals;

• the Department of the Physical and Chemical Fundamentals of Metal Technology - at the Y.O. Paton Institute of Electric Welding;

• the Department of Metal Science, Equipment and Technology of Thermal Treatment of Metals - at the Institute of Material Science Problems.

Lectures are delivered by academicians - V. V. Nemoshkalenko, V. V. Skorokhod, V. L. Naidek, I. N. Karp, B. I. Medovar, Corresponding Members of the Ukraine's NAS - G. P. Borisov, V. P. Bondarenko, G. G. Yefimenko, S. G. Yushchenko.

A few years ago three new disciplines were opened at the faculty: Physical Material Science, Powder Metallurgy, Special Metallurgy. New specializations include: Art and Jewelry Casting, Technology of Producing Dentures and Orthopedic Prosthetic Appliances, International Certification and Standardization of Metallurgy Industry. The first two are especially much in demand, proving to be more popular than the others.

Our faculty is located in a very good training and laboratory building with sufficiently modern equipment. We have created an all-faculty Computer Laboratory with a local network. Practically all of the faculty's students use computers in doing their year's and graduation designs and other works.

There are 5 Departments and 6 research Laboratories at the Faculty.