Scientific Dynasties: Pavel Chernogorov, the Founder of SUSU Foundry School

In 2018, South Ural State University celebrates its 75th anniversary. This year is the 110th anniversary from the birthday of Pavel Vasilyevich Chernogorov, a talented engineer and scientist. During the period of the World War Two, the technology of chill casting of tank turrets was organized under his supervision for the first time in the country, in the city of Omsk, at the Plant named after K.Voroshilov. Then, in 1957, Pavel Vasilyevich started working at CPI as Head of the Department of Foundry Production. He is justly considered to be the founder of SUSU (CPI) foundry school.

Working as a metallurgist during the war and in time of peace

Pavel Vasilyevich Chernogorov was born on July 7 of 1908 in a family of a patternmaker in Saint Petersburg. From the first days of his labor activity, he dedicated himself to foundry production. Having graduated from the Leningrad Polytechnic Institute in 1935, he worked as a senior production engineer, head of a foundry’s engineering bureau, leader of a project group; and in 1943 he was assigned the senior metallurgist of the Stalingrad Tractor Factory.

During the Great Patriotic War, a serious reorganization of metallurgical shops was carried out under supervision of Pavel Vasilyevich. Instead of peaceful tractors, the factory had to produce tanks and tank engines, during production of which the most difficult part was aluminum casting. A little more than two months after the beginning of the war, first T-34 tanks produced at the Stalingrad Tractor Factory had already been put in combat. When the matter of evacuating people and the factory further beyond Volga came pressing, Pavel Vasilyevich moved to Omsk.

In 1951, Pavel Chernogorov was assigned the senior metallurgist of the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant. From 1953 till 1956, he was the head engineer of the Chelyabinsk Transport Machinery Plant. During this time at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant and Chelyabinsk Transport Machinery Plant, a job was done to improve organization and technology of casting production, as well as enhancing their geometric accuracy. For the first time in the industry, chemically drying mixtures for heavy steel casting were applied.

A calling for teaching

Teaching career of Pavel Vasilyevich started from 1936, when he combined his main job with teaching special courses of foundry production first at the Stalingrad Mechanical Institute, and then in Omsk Mechanical Engineering Institute.

His talent as an organizer, pedagogue, and scientist was especially brightly revealed at the Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute, where in 1956 he established the Department of Foundry Production, and headed it till his last days. In 1957, he was awarded the rank of Professor.

It took Pavel Vasilyevich a short period of time to gather up a team of creative research-and-teaching staff at the Department. The main scientific area, connected with improvement of foundry processes and enhancement of geometric accuracy and surface conditions of cast products, was determined right away.

In 1968-70s, two industry-specific research laboratories under the Ministry of Defense Industry and the Ministry of Tractor and Agricultural Machinery Engineering were established at the Department. Research activity was carried out in two areas: production of heavy steel castings for armored vehicles, and development of progressive forming processes and mixtures for ferrous and nonferrous casting, including refractory and heat-resistant metals.

Works on improvement of casting surfaces’ quality, performed under supervision of Professor Chernogorov, became widely acknowledged. Results were published in advanced engineering journals of the USSR and a number of foreign countries. They became widely applicable at domestic and foreign enterprises. Results of the research work were published in 120 articles and three books; he is the author of 12 inventions. Besides, Pavel Vasilyevich served as the CPI’s Vice-Rector for Research.

Photo: Evgeniy Pavlovich Chernogorov

Children and grandchildren stay devoted to SUSU

Pavel Vasilyevich’s son, Evgeniy Chernogorov, Candidate of Sciences (Engineering), Associate Professor of the Department of Engineering Mechanics of the SUSU Institute of Engineering and Technology, graduated the Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute with honours in 1965, and remained for working at the Department of Theoretical Mechanics. From September of 1971 till June of 1974, Evgeniy Pavlovich was teaching in Algeria upon an assignment from the Ministry of Higher Education Institutions of the USSR. There he taught Mathematics n French. In November of 1975, he was admitted for postgraduate studies to the CPI Aerospace Engineering Faculty’s Department of Aircraft Engines. In September of 1979, he returned to the Department of Theoretical Mechanics, where he has been working since.

During the time of working, Evgeniy Chernogorov more than once was awarded letters of appreciation and honorary credentials; he was awarded with a Yu.A. Gagarin medal of the USSR Federation of Cosmonautics. He concurrently performs teaching activity at the Chelyabinsk Agrarian University, where he delivers lectures in French on machine parts, thermal engineering, hydraulics, descriptive geometry, fuel and lubricants. In his work, Evgeniy Pavlovich actively applies modern techniques of education process’ computerizing.

Evgeniy Pavlovich’s wife, Leya Ananyevna, also worked as a French language teacher at the CPI Department of Foreign Languages in 1968 – 1971. Their daughter, Anna Chernogorova (Gakamsky), graduated CPI with honours in 1989, in the specialty of Physical and Chemical Research of Metallurgy Processes. After graduation, she stayed to work at the Department of Physical Chemistry. In 1993 – 1998, she worked as an assistant at the Department of Theoretical Mechanics. In 1999, she got admitted for PhD studies at the Weizmann Institute (Israel), where in 2007 she defended her dissertation. Presently, she is working as an Application Engineer at Edinburgh Instruments Ltd (Edinburgh, Scotland).

Photo: L.A. Chernogorova, A.E. Gakamsky, O.P Chernogorova

Pavel Vasilyevich’s daughter, Olga Chernogorova, graduated CPI with honours in 1970. She was a postgraduate student at the Department of Metal Science; she’s a Candidate of Sciences (Engineering). Presently, she is working as a senior research fellow of the Laboratory of Structural Steels and Alloys at the Institute of Metallurgy and Material Science of the RAS. In 2017, Department of Physical Chemistry and Inorganic Materials’ Technology awarded Olga Pavlovna with the P.P. Anosov prize for outstanding research works in the sphere of metallurgy, metal science, and thermal treatment of metals and alloys for her work entitled “Development of scientific foundations for creating high-abrasion-resistant composite metal materials, reinforced with particles of hyper elastic solid carbon.”

Olga Romanovskaia, photo by Viktoria Matveichuk
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