Marking the professional holiday of university teachers, we are conducting a series of interviews with SUSU academic staff members. This time, Pavel Gamov, Candidate of Sciences (Engineering), Associate Professor, Head of the SUSU Department of Pyrometallurgical and Foundry Technologies spoke about his student life, science and labour of love.
– Could you please tell us about your young years as a starting point of our interview. What was your dream profession?
I graduated from South Ural State University and had initially submitted my documents for three programmes: Metallurgy, Automotive Engineering, and Instrumentation Engineering. I had been interested in all three, so they had been equally important to me. As a result, with my passing grades, I enrolled in the Metallurgy programme and never thought about changing my profession or area of training ever since.
– Were you a diligent student?
I would not say that. I always liked the phrase that our teachers said: “A metallurgist with excellent grades will become an excellent engineer, and a metallurgist with satisfactory grades will become a chief engineer.” This is a joke, of course, but student life, in my opinion, involves not only studying subjects, but also honing communication skills. It is good when you study well, but it is much better when you are involved in studies, sports, and creativity. Student years is the time to expand your interests. I completed both my Bachelor's and Master's degrees with honours, but I had not set such a goal for myself. I cannot say that I did not have satisfactory grades. Due to the fact that the final grade in a discipline for the diploma was based on the grade for the last semester, I achieved excellent academic performance.
– How long were you studying and when did you start your career at the university?
I studied according to the 4+2 Bologna system (4 years in a Bachelor's and 2 years in a Master's degree programmes), and subsequently completed my postgraduate studies programme. I started working at the university upon completing my Master’s degree, it was back in 2009. I enrolled in postgraduate studies and got a job at the department as an assistant. At that time, I only held seminars, and later, after being transferred to another position, I began to deliver lectures as well.
– Were you engaged in science right away? Do you share the opinion that “one needs to mature to do science”?
I started my career in science as soon as I became a teacher at the department. First of all, it is a matter of motivation. If a person is interested in this, as, in any other activity, then it can be assumed that a person is mature enough. It all depends on the desire and willingness to look for ways to develop. Even at school, many children, if they are interested in something new, start studying science. Now, I believe, there are more and more mechanisms for involving children in the educational and learning process.
– What was your first research study about? What did you start with?
The very first topic grew into the topic of my dissertation work. I was fond of programming, studied metallurgy, and I preserved this interest for many, many years. So, the topic of my dissertation was at the intersection of these two industries: I developed a program for modelling metallurgical systems.
– Has the vector of your research interest changed or remained the same over time?
We are currently working on a project on processing copper smelting slag. From it, we extract iron in the form of cast iron, suitable for making products. One of the examples are cast iron balls, which are used as grinding media to grind ore in mining and processing plants.
– When did you become the head of the department? What qualities should a person occupying this position have?
In 2017. For a year I worked as an acting head of the department, then I was elected at a meeting of the University Council. I noticed how our regional leaders answered a similar question at the Russian Economic Forum, which has been held in Chelyabinsk. Moreover, the answer is universal: first of all, a person’s hard skills are important, that is, professional skills and competencies. Of course, a person taking the position of a head of a department of metallurgy should know about metallurgy in detail. But it is equally important, if not more important, for the head to have soft skills: the ability to communicate and find a compromise. This work requires the skill of creating a working team; which, in turn, requires a common idea and common interests. The effectiveness of everyone’s work depends precisely on the atmosphere in a working team. The more I work in this position, the more I am convinced of this.
– Please, tell us what your laboratory is working on?
We are engaged in various research studies, including decarbonisation: we are conducting research in the direction of replacing carbon with hydrogen. The idea is to limit carbon dioxide emissions produced by the combustion of many types of fuel (coal, natural gas). Carbon dioxide is hazardous due to its ability to form a greenhouse layer above the surface of the planet. One of the things we are doing to reduce our carbon footprint is replacing carbon with hydrogen. Hydrogen, like one of the fuel components, burns well and can be used in metallurgy as a reducing agent that takes oxygen away from iron. In this case, not carbon dioxide, but environmentally neutral water will become the combustion product. We are studying the interaction of hydrogen with our materials, and how we can extract metals and develop a technology. We do a lot of exploratory research to determine the most effective directions in an applied sense.
– If we enter your first and last name in the search box on the SUSU website, we can learn about all your positions at the university. What advice would you give to beginner teachers and researchers on how to manage everything and achieve success?
Here, in my opinion, there are two hidden questions: "Why do you need this?" and "How to manage everything?" Now a trend towards increasing the level of interdisciplinarity in science and education is observed and, accordingly, the solutions at the intersection of fields of knowledge are being searched for. So, we are working in different directions, including, for example, with Aerospace. My multiple positions can be explained, of course, by my great involvement in work. And the answer to the question of "How to manage everything?" is simple: if people are interested in what they are doing, they do not notice how time flies. The best option is when you combine your work with your hobby. When work brings joy, a person really achieves great results.