Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences

Shixalibayli Adham was born in 1911 in the village of Bidzhov, Shamakhi region. In 1937 he graduated from the geological exploration department of the Azerbaijan Industrial Institute (now the Azerbaijan State University of Oil and Industry).

In 1947 Shixalibayli Adham received a PhD degree in geology and mineralogy, in 1965 - a Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences. Then, he became a Professor. In 1968, he was elected as a corresponding member, and in 1983, as an active member of the Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences.

A.Shixalibayli since 1954 worked at the Institute of Geology (now the Institute of Geology and Geophysics). For many years he headed the department of geotectonics, stratigraphy and lithology at the institute. In 1969-1971 led a group of Soviet geologists who conducted a search for oil and gas fields in Algeria.

From 1992 till the end of his life A.Shixalibayli was President of the National Committee of Geologists of Azerbaijan. A.Shixalibayli was a member of the Interdepartmental Tectonic Committee of the Department of Geology, Geophysics, Geochemistry and Mining Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, a member of the scientific and technical councils of the BSU State Committee on Geology and Mineral Resources, a member of the editorial board of the Azerbaijan Soviet Encyclopedia and deputy editor of the journal “Izvestia” Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan (a series of earth sciences).

A.Shixalibayli defined the stages of emergence of the folded system of the Eastern Caucasus, divided them into structural zones and provided scientific foundations for the role of the northwestern Dorifean and rift northeastern (Riphean) faults in their appearance. The scientist discovered the buried West Caspian uplift and substantiated the fact that this uplift contributed to the integration of the positive structures of the Caucasian folded system as it approached the Caspian Sea. For the first time, a scientist proved the prospects for finding deposits of polymetallic ore deposits in the Balak-Zagatala region.

A.Shixalibayli is the author of over 250 scientific works, including 15 monographs and co-author of the geological, tectonic, paleotectonic, geomorphological, neotectonic and metallogenic maps of Azerbaijan, as well as tectonic maps of the Caucasus and Europe.

In 1979 he was awarded the honorary title “Honored Scientist of Azerbaijan”.

Academician Adham Shixalibayli died in 1996 in Baku.