Vitalii Babak

Vitalii Babak was born on February 15, 1954, in the city of Lubny, Poltava Oblast. In 1977, he graduated with honors from the Faculty of Electrical Instrument Engineering and Computer Science at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (KPI), where he also completed his postgraduate and doctoral studies, advancing his career at the institution from engineer to head of department. From 1995 to 1998, he served as Deputy Minister of Education of Ukraine in charge of higher education, and from 1998 to 2008, he was the Rector of the National Aviation University.

In 2008, he joined the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, working at the Institute of Engineering Thermophysics of the NAS of Ukraine (2008–2021) as a Chief Research Scientist, Head of the Department of Monitoring and Optimization of Thermophysical Processes, and Deputy Director for Research. Since 2022, he has been with the General Energy Institute of the NAS of Ukraine, serving as Head of the Department of Monitoring and Diagnostics of Power Engineering Facilities, Acting Director, and Director of the Institute.

Vitalii Babak is a prominent scientist in the fields of general energy and information technology. He is one of the founders and leaders of the research field focused on developing a new class of energy facility monitoring systems based on noise diagnostics and heat flux sensors. He formulated the theoretical foundations of noise diagnostics, advanced the theory of onboard power system diagnostics and tomographic data processing, and devised failure prediction methods for power equipment components under conditions of scarce anomalous deviations, thereby enhancing failure prediction accuracy and system reliability. His work also encompasses energy complex monitoring systems across the generation, transmission, and consumption stages — including deployments utilizing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) — neural network-based expert systems for monitoring energy facilities using real-time and historical data, and the scientific framework for statistical research into the impact of energy balance components on atmospheric pollutant emissions.

Vitalii Babak founded an internationally recognized scientific school in energy facility monitoring and information-measurement technologies. Academician Vitalii Babak’s students have defended 20 doctoral and 30 candidate dissertations, and attained the title of Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine.

The practical and scientific outcome of this research was the development of a suite of globally competitive instruments and diagnostic systems for power engineering facilities, aviation, aerospace, construction, and environmental protection. Built largely upon a domestic technological base, these systems have been implemented at the State Enterprise “Pivdenne Design Bureau” named after M.K. Yangel, SPE “Mashynobuduvannia” (Dnipro), SE “Ivchenko-Progress”, JSC “Motor Sich” (Zaporizhzhia), SE “Electrotyazhmash Plant” (Kharkiv), the Antonov ASTC, SE “Plant 410 CA”, SE “Plant Arsenal”, Kyivenergo, and CHP-6 (Kyiv), among others, as well as internationally in Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, Lithuania, South Korea, Russia (prior to 2014), Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

He is an Honorary Doctor of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (Lithuania), Georgian Technical University (Georgia), the University of Córdoba (Spain), Korea Aerospace University (South Korea), the Technical University of Munich (Germany), and the University of North Dakota (USA), an Honorary Member of IEEE (USA), and a Member of the Bulgarian Society for Non-Destructive Testing.