Today is the day of remembrance of academician Zarifa Aliyeva

April 15 is the day of remembrance of the outstanding Azerbaijani ophthalmologist and academician Zarifa Aliyeva.

As BAKU.WS reminds us, Zarifa Aziz gizi Aliyeva was born on April 28, 1923, in the village of Shakhtakhty in the Sharur district of the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan.

In 1942, after graduating from high school, she entered the medical faculty of the Azerbaijan State Medical Institute, which she graduated from in 1947. Then Zarifa Aliyeva completed a specialization course in ophthalmology at the Central Institute for Advanced Medical Training in Moscow.

The desire for scientific research led Zarifa Aliyeva to the Azerbaijan Scientific Research Institute of Ophthalmology, where she began working as a resident physician. In 1950, she entered graduate school, which she completed in 1953, and then until 1957, she worked as a researcher at the Scientific Research Institute of Ophthalmology.

In those years, an eye disease such as trachoma was widespread in Azerbaijan. Effective methods of treating the infection had not been developed, and the fight against this disease was important not only for ophthalmology but also for the republic's healthcare system as a whole. Zarifa Aliyeva took an active part in organizing and conducting therapeutic and preventive measures to combat trachoma.

From 1960 to 1967, Zarifa Aliyeva worked as a senior researcher at the Research Institute of Ophthalmology. In 1963, the Higher Attestation Commission of the USSR awarded her the title of senior researcher in the specialty of "ophthalmology".

In 1967, Zarifa Aliyeva was invited to the position of associate professor at the Department of Eye Diseases at the Azerbaijan State Institute for Advanced Medical Training under the Ministry of Health, which was named after her father - Professor Aziz Mamed Kerim oglu Aliyev, who led this institute in the last years of his life.

The results of many years of observations, clinical studies, and experiments formed the basis of Zarifa Aliyeva's doctoral dissertation. The dissertation entitled "The State of the Visual Organ in Workers of Some Chemical Industry Enterprises in Azerbaijan" was defended at one of the world's authoritative ophthalmological centers - the Moscow Research Institute of Eye Diseases named after G. Helmholtz.

Zarifa Aliyeva's dissertation received high praise and recognition from ophthalmologist scientists and was one of the pioneering works in the field of professional ophthalmology. In 1977, Zarifa Aliyeva was awarded the degree of Doctor of Medical Sciences.

A year after defending her doctoral dissertation, Zarifa Aliyeva was elected professor of the Department of Ophthalmology at the Azerbaijan State Institute for Advanced Medical Training named after A. Aliyev, and in 1983, she became the head of the Department of Ophthalmology.

In recognition of her great merits and many years of research work, Professor Zarifa Aliyeva was elected an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Azerbaijan in 1983. The academician carried out extensive public work, being a member of the USSR Peace Committee, deputy chairman of the Azerbaijan Peace Committee, a member of the board of the "Knowledge" society and a member of the presidium of the scientific society of ophthalmologists of the USSR, and was part of the editorial board of the journal "Bulletin of Ophthalmology".

Zarifa Aliyeva's merits were recognized with orders and medals. In 1981, she was awarded the highest award in the field of ophthalmology - the Professor M.I. Averbakh Prize of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences. The scientist was also awarded the honorary title "Honored Scientist of Azerbaijan".

Zarifa Aliyeva is the wife of the national leader of the Azerbaijani people Heydar Aliyev and the mother of the current President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev.

Untimely death interrupted the scientific research of Academician Zarifa Aliyeva. She died on April 15, 1985, in Moscow. She was buried in Moscow at the Novodevichy Cemetery. In 1994, she was reburied at the Alley of Honor in Baku.