Chemist Yusif Mammadaliyev: aviation fuel, Molotov cocktails, satellites, and rockets

Baku hosted a two-day international conference titled "Yusif Mammadaliyev: Science. Heritage. Innovation," dedicated to the 120th anniversary of the chemist, professor, and academician who once managed to elevate Soviet science to a new level. Who was Yusif Mammadaliyev and what leaders of international organizations said about him at the conference?

Yusif Mammadaliyev's biography

• Yusif Mammadaliyev was born on December 31, 1905, in Ordubad, Nakhichevan.
• He graduated from the Baku Pedagogical Institute at the age of 21, and from Faculty of Chemistry of Moscow State University - at 25, where he was a student of organic chemist Nikolay Zelinsky.
• First, he worked at a chemical plant in Moscow, but returned to his homeland, where he worked as the manager of the laboratory at the Azerbaijan Research Institute of Oil from 1933 until the end of the Great Patriotic War. During the war years, he became a Doctor of Chemistry and a professor. He was also awarded the Order of Lenin for his work in supplying the front with critical petroleum products.
• After the war, he was elected an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR and served as director of the Oil Academy of the Azerbaijan SSR. A year later, he became chairman of the scientific-technical council of the USSR Ministry of the Oil Industry.
• In the early 1950s, he was the academician-secretary of physics, chemistry and oil departments of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR.
• In the mid-1950s, he served as rector of Azerbaijan State University.
• Mammadaliyev also held the position of President of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR. During his tenure, on his initiative, the Institute of Petrochemical Processes in Baku, the Manuscript Foundation, the Institute of Oriental Studies, the Shamakhy Astrophysical Observatory, and the Republican Computer Center were established.
• He died on December 15, 1961, at the age of 55.

What's Yusif Mammadaliyev legacy?

• He figured out how to utilize associated gas.
• He proposed the idea of using hydrogen in internal combustion engines.
• Based on chlorine compounds, he created a treatment for infectious diseases.
• He identified the healing properties of Naftalan oil, becoming the founder of Naftalan resort therapy.
• He was the inventor of high-octane gasoline, which significantly increased aircraft engine power and did not freeze. During the war, this gave Soviet planes a tremendous advantage over German ones.
• Mammadaliyev's method of toluene synthesis allowed for its use in creating explosives (TNT), which were used for artillery shells and mines.
• Mammadaliyev's most famous invention is the "Molotov Cocktail" - a container filled with flammable substances named after Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov, who was the deputy chairman of the State Defense Committee during the war. Similar "иottle grenadeы" had been used before, but it was Mammadaliyev who proposed filling the bottles with a mixture containing an oxidizing agent that could melt tank armor.
• Another fuel invented by Mammadaliyev was used for launching satellites and rockets.

Allegedly, the last two inventions earned him the honor of standing on the podium of the Lenin Mausoleum during parades twice - on Victory Day and when greeting Gagarin.
They also wanted to nominate Mammadaliyev for the Nobel Prize for his research into the chlorination of alkanes, but the "secret" classification prevented it.

What global community say about Mammadaliyev?

"UNESCO highly values the scientific heritage of academician Yusif Mammadaliyev, who contributed to both regional and global science and played a key role in the development of scientific potential in Azerbaijan," UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General Lidia Brito said.

"Mammadaliyev's brilliant achievements significantly contributed to the scientific breakthroughs that formed the basis of humanity's first great steps beyond Earth. Azerbaijan became one of the leading centers of petrochemical innovation, and one of the main reasons was the scientific schools and institutes created by Mammadaliyev, serving as temples of knowledge for training a new generation of researchers. The legacy he created proves that the harmony of science and culture remains the main condition for the progress of nations," Director-General of ICESCO Salim bin Muhammad Al-Malik said.

"The scientist's research made an enormous contribution to the country's development. His immensely rich scientific heritage continues to serve as an important reference point today. Each scientific field Mammadaliyev established became fundamental in its domain," Azerbaijan's Minister of Science and Education Emin Amrullayev said.