Yusif Haydar oglu Mammadaliyev was born on December 31, 1905, in Ordubad, Nakhchivan AR. •January 7, 1907 – Mir Ali Seyid Ali oghlu Gashgai was born in Ganja, in the family of an ancient kin. •1912– Mir Ali Gashgai entered Ganja gymnasium. •1919– Mir Ali's mother Habiba Khanim and his uncle Jamil was shot to death by bandits in a home invasion, and Mir Ali was injured. •1920 – Mir Ali was taken to local theatre as the actor and later he became the director of the theatre. Mir Ali's family, which was deprived of livelihood was supported by his salary. •1923 – He left Ganja and moved to Baku. •1924 – He entered the first course of geological-exploratory department of mining faculty of Azerbaijan State Polytechnic Institute. •1930 – After the graduation he became the director of geological-exploratory works in alunite deposits of Zagliksk. •1930–1935 – Education years in a graduate school of Petrographical Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the Azerbaijan SSR, expeditionary trips to the North Caucasus, Azerbaijan and Siberia. Three research papers were the result of Siberian expeditions, which were published in the works of Petrographical Institution, in publishing house of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, under the edition of the Council for analysis of natural resources. •1934 – Gashgai studied mineral sources of Isti-su in Azerbaijan, collected materials for Candidate's dissertation. Later, these mineral sources will be the separate area of his scientific activity. •1935 – successful defense of the dissertation in Moscow, in a session of the board of experts of the Institute of Geological Sciences of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Leading one of the brigades of the North Caucasian petrographical-chemical expedition of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, he went to study minerals in Karachay autonomous oblast. Research paper “On the northern slope of the Main Caucasian ridge”, where was written about characteristics of minerals of the North Caucasus was the result of the mission. •1935-1936 – Worked as the scientist-expert in the Geological department of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Moscow under the guidance of professor P.I.Lebedyev. Composition of geological and geochemical maps of vast territories of Altai, the Southern Siberia, the Northern Caucasus – the main result of Russian period in the life of Azerbaijani scientist. •1936 – He returned to the motherland, where he worked as the senior research officer of Azerbaijani branch of the Academy of Sciences and associate professor of geology cathedra of the university. The expedition, which he led opened six new chromite deposits- valuable raw material for metallurgical industry, deposits of sulfuric pyrite and iron minium in mountains of Lesser Caucasus. He released a book “Geological terms” together with such young scientists as K.Alizade, G.Efendiyev and S.Mammadzade.
Works
The hydrothermal-metasomatic formation of Kaolin and genetic classification of clay rocks. Clay miner. Bull., London, 1959, vol. 4, No.21ю
On the Alpientype veins of Caucasus, Just. Lugas Mallada. C.S.L.O., Madrid, 1960.
