Ponyatovsky Eugeny Genrikhovich

Position: Principal Scientist About: Prof. Ponyatovsky was born in Moscow in 1930. In 1954, he graduated from the Department of Physics and Chemistry of Moscow Steel Institute. In 1961, he got a PhD degree from the Institute of Metal Physics in Kiev and in 1969 - a Doctor of Sciences degree from the Institute of Metal Physics in Sverdlovsk. Since 1979, he has been Full Professor, since 1999 – Honoured Worker of Science of the Russian Federation.

Career/Employment:

1954 – 1959 Junior Res. Associate, Institute of Crystallography Ac. Sci., Moscow

1959 – 1962 Senior Res. Associate Institute of Metal Phys., Moscow

1962 – 1965 Head of High-Pressure Group, Institute of Metal Phys., Moscow

1965 – till 2003 – Head of Laboratory for High-Pressure Physics, ISSP Chernogolovka

2003 - till now - Principal Scientist of ISSP

1974 – till now – Chairman of the Scientific Council on High Pressure Physics of the USSR (now Russian) Academy of Science

1980-1986 member of the Executive Committee of AIRAPT

Member of the Editorial Board of “ Soviet Physics Solid State ” and of international journal “High Pressure Research” (1985-2000)

Professor in Moscow Steel and Alloys Institute.

Areas of expertise:

Phase transformations in solids under high pressure Metal-hydrogen systems under high hydrogen pressures

Pressure-induced solid-state amorphization

The structure and properties of products of solid-state amorphization

The effect of hydrogen on the structure, physical and mechanical properties of metals and alloys

Number of papers in refereed journals: above 350.

In 2004, a monography/handbook was published: “Phase Transformations of Elements Under High Pressure” E.Yu. Tonkov, E.G. Ponyatovsky.

CRC Press, London - New York - Washington.

Research activities:

While constructing the P-T phase diagram of cerium, E.G. Ponyatovsky discovered that the line of its solid-state isomorphous phase transformation terminated at critical point of the liquid-vapour type (the year of 1958). Later (1961) and in co-operation with I.L. Aptekar, he proposed a thermodynamical model of pseudo-binary solutions that gave an adequate description of phase diagrams and physical properties of metals and compounds of the cerium type characterisedby the valency varying due to electronic transitions.

In the early 1960s, E.G. Ponyatovsky organised a High-Pressure Group at the Institute of Metal Physics of the Central Institute for Ferrous Metallurgy (Moscow) and studiedthe effect of pressure on phase diagrams of some two-component systems important for metallurgy (Fe-я, Fe-Mn, Fe-Ni, Fe-Cr).

In 1965, E.G. Ponyatovsky took charge of the Laboratory of High-Pressure Physics of ISSP (Chernogolovka). Under his guidance, a series of studies has been performed on high-pressure phases of alloys of non-transition metals and a new group of superconducting phases of the Hume-Rothery type has been discovered.

In 1978, E.G. Ponyatovsky in co-operation with I.T. Belash and V.E. Antonov developed an original technique for compressing gaseous hydrogen in macroscopic volumes to pressures of up to 90 kbar and also a technique for thermobaric quenching of high-pressure phases to low temperatures. This allowed him for the first time to synthesise and study hydrides of many transition metals (iron, cobalt, molybdenum, etc.).

The effect of hydrogen-induced plasticization of titanium alloys was studied in detail in co-operation with I.O. Bashkin.

In 1981, E.G. Ponyatovsky together with a group of scientists from the Ukrainian Ac. Sci. received a State Award of the Council of Ministers of the USSR for the development and manufacturing application of a new technology for producing superhard materials from boron nitride.

Since approx. 1985, E.G. Ponyatovsky has been involved with studies of pressure-induced processes of solid-state amorphization. One of his most notable results was the thermodynamical analysis of the metastable T-P diagram of water and localisation of the critical point on the line of phase equilibrium between the low- and highdensity amorphous ices. These studies have for the first time given an explanation and quantitative description of the anomalous water properties under normal conditions (1995).

e-mail: ponyatov@issp.ac.ru

Phones: office: 8-2522-4688 (from Moscow), 2-46-88 (local)

home: 2-13-86 (local)

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