Ali Quliyev was born on 31 May 1912. In 1934, he entered  Baku State University, Faculty of Chemistry. He graduated with honors in 1939, and was appointed a teaching assistant at the Department of Organic Chemistry.

He started his research activity in 1937 at Azerbaijan Oil Refining and Industrial Research Institute after V. V. Kuybıshev. In 1941-1942, he served as chief of installations and then an engineer. In 1943, Ali Quliyev defended a PhD thesis on “Getting hexamethylenetetramine from natural gas”.

In 1951, he obtained a ScD degree in chemistry after successfully defending his thesis on the synthesis of admixture for increasing the quality of motor lubricating oils and their use.

Ali Quliyev is the founder of the scientific school in the field of chemistry of additives. In 1945, under his supervision, the laboratory of the synthesis of additives was established and for the first time in the Soviet Union the industrial production of “AZNII-depressant” and “AZNII-4” additives was developed and applied in plants. In 1965, Ali Quliyev initiated the establishment of the Institute of Addıtıves under Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences, and headed it until 1987.  

From 1948 to 1951, he won the USSR State Award two times for working out the method of increasing the quality of mineral oils as instructed by the USSR Soviet of Ministers. In 1970, he became the laureate of the State Award of Azerbaijan. From 1951 to 1960, Ali Quliyev chaired the Department of Organic Chemistry, BSU.

In 1952, he was made a professor at the Department of Petrochemistry. In 1958, he was elected a corresponding member and in 1959 a full member of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan SSR. From 1963-1967, he was academic secretary of the Chemistry Section of Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences.

He published 670 papers and eight monographs.

He was the holder of 107 authorship certificates. In 1974, Ali Quliyev was made “Merited Scientist of Azerbaijan SSR”. ANAS Institute of Chemistry of Admixtures was named after him in 1993.