Igor Shabalin
Igor Logan Shabalin (Russian: Шабали́н И́горь Лóганович; born August 26, 1950) is a Soviet and British materials scientist, whose main contributions are in the field of ceramic and composite materials for nuclear and aerospace applications. He is an Honorary Professor of the National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute".
Early life and education
Igor Shabalin was born in the town of Kamensk-Uralsky, Sverdlovsk Oblast, USSR. After graduating from high school with a gold medal in 1967, Shabalin began studying Technology of Less-common, Dissipative and Radioactive Elements (Chemical Engineering for Nuclear Industry) in the Ural Polytechnic Institute (USTU-UPI), Sverdlovsk (now – Yekaterinburg). Shabalin attracted the attention of one of the leaders of the Soviet military industrial complex D. F. Ustinov, who recommended him to the Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for the city of Sverdlovsk, then - the Minister of General Machine Building of the USSR S. A. Afanasyev. As a result, Shabalin accomplished his student diploma work within the themes of this Ministry, with which his research activities were directly related until the dissolution of the USSR in 1991..
After graduating from the university with an honorary diploma in 1973, Shabalin continued his studies with a postgraduate scholarship under the supervision of Vasilii G. Vlasov, obtaining his PhD degree in 1977 for the materials science and engineering of high-temperature carbide–carbon composites.
Scientific and research contribution
His early work was on hetero-modulus ceramic composites, which were called "high-E – low-E materials" in the US, that Shabalin began to study during his PhD. Some of his experimental works, dating back to this period, about 20 years later led him to the discovery of the "ridge effect" phenomenon in the oxidation of carbon-containing compounds and composite materials.
He worked on the optimization of microstructure and investigations of the properties of carbide–carbon composite materials, based on carbides of transition metals of groups 4-6. In 1982 for the creation of technological equipment for the production of similar materials, the team of designers and researchers was awarded a gold medal of the USSR Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy.
Generalization and further development of these works led Shabalin to the creation of general concept and theory of design of hetero-modulus ceramic materials intended for the application in extreme conditions. For the implementation of promising developments of novel materials in products in the aerospace industry, by an order of the Minister of General Machine Building of the USSR, Scientific & Research Aerospace Industry Laboratory (ONIL-123) was established in 1984 under the leadership of Shabalin with the pilot production on the basis of one of the refractory plants of Ministry of Ferrous Metallurgy.
Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, he worked as an assistant/advisor to his university colleague, Member and Deputy Chairman of the State Duma (Parliament) of the Russian Federation V. A. Yazev, whilst also was collaborating with a number of universities in Yekaterinburg as Professor of Economics, including the foundation of Department of Anti-Crisis Management (Insolvency Law) at the Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University (RSVPU). Since 2005, he has been a research fellow and Professor at the University of Salford Materials and Physics Research Centre.
Over the course of his scientific career, Shabalin has published around 350 scientific and technical papers and held over 40 Russian patents and author's certificates. The culmination of this activity has become his multi-volume book series "Ultra-High Temperature Materials", continuing the best traditions of the Ukrainian scientific school in Materials Science and Engineering of refractory compounds.