Paton junior was born in the professors’ residence building of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, where his father was teaching.

[2] During the Second World War, in 1941 and 1942, Paton worked and designed electric circuits at the Krasnoye Sormovo Factory No.

[2] Paton was appointed chairman of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 1962 and held this position until his death.

[6] He was convinced that he should work in Kyiv, at his parents' Institute of Electric Welding and the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences.

[6] In the early 1970s and 1980s Paton had advised the Soviet authorities not to build the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

[3][2] In January 2008 Paton was appointed member of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine by a decree of President Viktor Yushchenko.

Paton led research on the application of welding heat sources for the improvement of the quality of the smelted metal.

On this basis a new branch of metallurgy was founded called special electrometallurgy (electroslag, plasma arc welding and electron-beam remelting).