Martynenko Ivan Ivanovych

Ivan Ivanovych Martynenko (21 October 1924, Khrestysche, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine – 5 May 2006, Kyiv, Ukraine) was a Ukrainian scientist, agricultural engineer, and the founder of agricultural automation in Ukraine. His pioneering works in electrification and automation of agriculture laid the foundation for the further development of agricultural robotics, electrotechnologies, and precision agriculture. 
==Early Life==
Martynenko was born to a family of peasants. In 1926 the family fled from the Holodomor in Ukraine to settle permanently in Novomoskovsk, Tula Oblast, Russia.
==Military Service==
In 1942, at the age of 17, Martynenko joined the Red Army. He was trained at the Tambov Machine Gun School and served as a machine gun unit commander during World War II, suffering injuries and hospitalization.
==Academic Career==
Martynenko graduated with honors from the Moscow Institute of Mechanization and Electrification of Agriculture in 1951, focusing on electrical engineering. After successfully defending his candidate's dissertation in 1955 on asynchronous electric motors in agriculture, he took up a teaching position at the Melitopol Institute of Mechanization of Agriculture before moving to the Ukrainian Scientific Research Institute of Mechanization and Electrification of Agriculture in Kyiv.
He ascended to the academic ranks at the Ukrainian Agricultural Academy, eventually becoming the head of the Department of Electrical Energy in Agriculture in 1969. At this time Martynenko developed a curriculum for the new specialty “Automation in Agricultural Production" and started to teach courses in this discipline for undergraduate and graduate students. 
==Contributions and Recognition==
Under Martynenko's leadership, a scientific school of electrotechnology and automation in agriculture emerged. He prepared 58 candidates (PhD) and 9 Doctors of Science. In 1970 he was elected as a corresponding member of the All-Union Academy of Agricultural Sciences (VAAS) in became an Academician of VAAS in 1988.
==Legacy==
Martynenko's work is continued by his students and specialists in Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania, Armenia, Belarus, Vietnam, and Canada. The Department of Automation and Robotic Systems at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine (NUBiP) is named in his honor. Since 2001, the Department of Automation and Robotic Systems, named after Academician I. I. Martynenko https://nubip.edu.ua/node/1376, has been headed by V. P. Lysenko.
==Awards and Honors==
Order of the Patriotic War, 2nd Class, and the Order "For Merit," 3rd Class.
12 medals, including "For Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War", Labor Veteran", "In Commemoration of the 1500th Anniversary of Kyiv", and others. Additionally, he received two diplomas from VDNH USSR (1984 and 1986). In 1979, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of VASGNIL, he was awarded the Jubilee Medal "50 Years of VASGNIL," and in 1983, he was honored with the Medal "50 Years of the Soviet System of Attestation of Scientific and Pedagogical Personnel." In 1985, he received the badge "Inventor of the USSR."
Category:1924 births
Category:Ukrainian people
Category:Scientists
Category:Agricultural engineers
Category:Founders