Azerbaijani universities, especially those operating in Baku since the Soviet era, have admitted thousands of students from dozens of countries. While a large number of these students later worked as engineers, doctors, and civil servants in their own countries, there are also world-renowned figures among them.
Modern.az has investigated prominent foreign figures who studied at Azerbaijani higher education institutions.
Thus, the educational careers of the absolute majority of several foreign famous graduates are linked to the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University (formerly the Oil and Chemistry Institute).
According to our research, one of the most notable figures is José Eduardo dos Santos, who was the president of Angola for many years. He led Angola from 1979 to 2017 and is considered one of the longest-serving leaders in African history.
Dos Santos was one of the students sent to the USSR for education in the 1960s and received higher education in oil engineering in Baku – at the Oil and Chemistry Institute (now the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University) operating at that time. He studied there for approximately 6 years, graduating in 1969. In addition, this technical education and Soviet environment later played a role in the formation of his political views. After returning from Baku, he actively participated in Angola's independence movement, and after the country gained independence in 1975, he rose to the positions of foreign minister and then president.
Genrich Altshuller, who studied at the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University, is known as an Uzbek-born Soviet inventor and is the author of the world-famous TRIZ (Theory of Inventive Problem Solving) method. In his youth, he studied in Baku and gained knowledge in engineering. The TRIZ system created by Altshuller is still widely used today in engineering, business, and innovation, placing him in a special place in the history of world invention.
Georgian-born Soviet politician Lavrentiy Beria is also a graduate of the Azerbaijan State Oil and Industry University. Although he started his career with an engineering and technical education, he later rose in the Soviet security system, becoming one of the most influential and, in some ways, controversial figures in the USSR. Beria is particularly known for leading the internal security organs during the time of Joseph Stalin and is more often associated with repressions in history.
Ukrainian-born Soviet cosmonaut Vitaliy Zholobov is also among the famous people who studied at ADNSU. After receiving his engineering education, he was involved in space programs and flew into space with the “Soyuz-21” mission in 1976.
Israeli writer Keren Pevzner also has an interesting biography related to Baku. Although she received a technical education, she later turned to literature and became known for her detective and journalistic works. Pevzner's work is distinguished by its reflection of the social realities of the post-Soviet space, and her period of education in Azerbaijan holds a special place in her life's journey.
Among those who studied at ADNSU is Israeli (formerly USSR) chess player Tatiana Zatulovskaya, one of the well-known figures in women's chess. She is also considered one of the individuals who passed through an educational stage related to Baku. Zatulovskaya is remembered for her successes in international tournaments and contributed to the development of women's chess.
