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 of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute (KPI). He completed his postgraduate and doctoral studies there and advanced through his career path at KPI, rising from an engineer to the Head of the Department. From 1995 to 1998, he served as the Deputy Minister of Education of Ukraine for Higher Education. From 1998 to 2008, he held the position of Rector of the National Aviation University.

In 2008, he transitioned to the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, where he worked 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 of the Institute for Scientific Work. Since 2022, he has been with the Institute of General Energy of the NAS of Ukraine, serving as the Head of the Department of Monitoring and Diagnostics of Energy Facilities and the Acting Director of the Institute.

V. Babak is a well-known scientist, both in Ukraine and internationally, in the fields of energy and information technology, particularly in the monitoring and diagnostics of energy systems, as well as energy efficiency. He is one of the founders and the leader of a scientific field dedicated to creating a new class of devices and diagnostics systems for energy facilities based on noise-based diagnostics and heat flux sensors.

He developed the theoretical foundations of noise-based diagnostics and advanced the theory of onboard power system diagnostics and tomographic data processing. He formulated methods for predicting energy equipment component failures under conditions of a sparse number of anomalous deviations, thereby increasing the probability of failure forecasting and improving the reliability of diagnostics systems across the entire thermal power complex—encompassing heat generation, transportation, and consumption, including the integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
Furthermore, he established the scientific and practical foundations of conductive calorimetry based on thermoelectric heat flux sensors, alongside a reference standard base to ensure the uniformity of heat flux surface density measurements, aligning with global standards for metrological measurement support. He also proposed original material diagnostics methodologies, comprehensive techniques for the detection, localization, and classification of defects in aerospace systems, and a structural concept for expert systems designed to assess the technical condition of products and the reliability of energy facilities using artificial intelligence based on neural networks.

V. Babak founded a globally recognized scientific school specializing in the monitoring of energy facilities and information-measuring technologies. Under Academician V. P. Babak’s guidance and mentorship, his disciples have successfully defended 20 Doctor of Sciences (D.Sc.) and 30 Candidates of Sciences (Ph.D. equivalent) dissertations, with one scholar achieving the title of Corresponding Member of the NAS of Ukraine.

The practical and scientific outcome of these efforts has been the creation of a range of diagnostics devices and systems for energy facilities, aviation and aerospace, construction, and environmental protection. These systems are globally competitive, largely built upon a domestic technological base, and have been successfully deployed at such enterprises as SE “SDO “Yuzhnoye” named after M.K. Yangel”, LLC “NVP Mashenobuduvannya” (Dnipro), SE “Ivchenko-Progress”, JSC “Motor Sich” (Zaporizhzhia), SE “Plant “Electrotyazhmash” (Kharkiv), ANTONOV Company, SE “Kyiv Aircraft Repair Plant 410 CA”, SE “Arsenal Factory”, Kyivenergo, CHPP-6 (Kyiv), among others. Furthermore, these technologies have been integrated internationally across Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, Lithuania, South Korea, Russia (prior to 2014), Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan.

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