Soviet underwater welding program at Paton Institute

B. E. Paton Sr. weld-repaired Soviet tanks during WWII; his son took over the institute named after him. As one of seven members of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and head of the Ukrainian branch, Paton directed disproportionate national research funding to his 10,000-person institute. Tom: "Corruption at its best." Used as background for Soviet titanium submarine welding capability.

There are very few people trained in welding in this country. There's one school that gives a four-year degree from a regular university — Ohio State University, which has had a welding engineering department for the last 60 years, though that department is now folded in with a couple of others. Highest-paid students in the School of Engineering at Ohio State. Industry wants them. If you go to the former Soviet Union, they had the Paton Institute in Kiev. For political reasons, the Paton Institute used to get huge amounts of money from the Soviet government. It's an institute of 10,000 people studying welding, though they study a lot of other things too, like casting.