South Ural State University renews the tradition of the alumni reunion meetings. Due to the pandemic certain adjustments have had to be made to the holding of events: people have to meet online. And while the first reunion meeting held by the SUSU School of Economics and Management was a recorded one, this time the organizers have changed the format.
“It took us quite a long time to prepare the reunion meeting for the alumni of the Faculty of Material Science and Metallurgical Technology,” shares Deputy Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Yuliya Bolotina. “Some of the participants were invited to our studio, and the guests were coming and going by turn. And some guests had recorded their video messages beforehand, and we were playing those during the meeting. The format of face-to-face communication in the studio allowed the participants to uncover themselves and brought them many positive emotions. For sure, we’re waiting for a chance to hold such meetings off-line, but for now, thanks to our university’s technical possibilities, we can meet online.”
The Faculty of Metallurgy, later renamed into the Faculty of Material Science and Metallurgical Technology, was established on February 7, 1952. Today, it is headed by its alumnus of 2002, Candidate of Sciences (Engineering) Mikhail Ivanov.
“The Faculty of Material Science and Metallurgical Technology has been developing dynamically; we have focused our resources on the global world trends in the fields of green metallurgy, creation of new materials with unique properties, and digitalization,” welcomed the alumni Mikhail Ivanov. “Over the last 10 years, the Faculty has been seriously reequipped and has grown with regards to science. The participation in the program of the national research university in 2010 allowed to fit the laboratories with world-class equipment. This gave a good impetus to intensifying the research studies. In 2015, our university joined Program 5-100 on enhancing the competitiveness on the world level, what has allowed to attract the world’s top foreign scientists and international companies to our laboratories.”
Among the meeting’s participants were heads of departments, lecturers and alumni of the Faculty of Material Science and Metallurgical Technology. The guests were reminiscing on their teachers, speaking about labour dynasties, and discussing how their studies influenced the choice of their profession and even the creation of their own families.
“Half of my life is associated with the Faculty of Physics and Metallurgy as it was there that I met my future wife, who is also a metallurgist and metal scientist,” shares a 2001 alumnus of the Department of Ferrous Metals Metallurgy, Director of Production Service at Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant (Mechel) Aleksey Tolstikov. “After I graduated, I received different offers: join the department that I’d graduated from, or the Engineering and Technical Centre of the Chelyabinsk Metallurgical Plant, or the postgraduate studies. I chose Mechel since my serious mentors advised me on immediately starting with production. Thus I came to the oxygen-converter plant of the casting station. I felt very proud that I managed to get a job namely at that station, and I still believe that one must begin from the beginning in any undertaking. I’m very happy that I became a metallurgist.”
The meeting’s participants busted a myth that metallurgy does not have a future, and that industrial production is dreadful, dirty and hard. It was repeatedly stressed that a metallurgist is a profession for real men. Today, many of the alumni continue their research activities. For example, Denis Vinnik, a 2006 alumnus, Doctor of Sciences (Chemistry), and Head of the Department of Materials Science, Physical and Chemical Properties of Materials, supervises the “Non-conventional Materials and Resource-Saving Technologies” Research Institute. An alumnus of the same department Dmitrii Zherebtsov, Doctor of Sciences (Chemistry), is a Senior Research Fellow at SUSU. And Salim Sharypov, who graduated from the Faculty in 1985, today is a director of two enterprises: Bionika sturgeon hydrobionts rearing plant, and RussVzryv company manufacturing the components of and ready-to-use industrial emulsion explosives.
According to the Head of ChelPipe company, deputy of the Chelyabinsk Region Legislative Assembly Evgenii Gubanov, who graduated from the Faculty in 2005, university is an important step in a person’s life, and studying at SUSU gave him that knowledge background thanks to which he has become the head of the major metallurgical enterprise. Evgenii Gubanov wished students to choose their profession answering the call of their heart.
“The main thing is to make up your mind about your specialization – this will influence the way your life will be built further on,” reasons the metallurgist. “I chose metallurgy since both my father and my grandfather are metallurgists. I never regretted either that I followed in their footsteps, or that I chose this Faculty. There are wonderful universities in the Chelyabinsk Region. Today, many of our employees work and study at South Ural State University. Thanks to our university the metallurgy sector gest competent and ready-to-work specialists. I believe that the citizens of the Chelyabinsk Region must obtain education in our region.”
The meeting’s participants were offered to play a game. Photos of the university buildings and then, of the academic staff were displayed on screen. And the guests were supposed to guess who or what was depicted. The event was closed with a surprise performance of a song by the alumni of the Faculty of Material Science and Metallurgical Technology. The lyrics had been written by the Faculty Dean Mikhail Ivanov. The song was performed by an alumnus of the Department of Pyrometallurgical Processes Laikhan Salamat, accompanied by Dmitrii Gromov, an alumnus of the Department of Machines and Processes of Pressure Metal Working, who played the guitar.
“We invite all faculties to participate. I know that many departments and faculties already have such a tradition, and we would like to make the alumni reunion meetings a showpiece, a traditional event at our university,” says Yuliya Bolotina.