Soltan Mehdiyev was born on 2 December 1914. In 1931, he graduated from Baku Pedagogical Vocational School, and got a teaching job at a village secondary school. In 1939, he graduated from Baku State University, Faculty of Chemistry. During the WWII, he made some explosives for military use. In 1943, he defended a PhD thesis in Tbilisi, and obtained a ScD degree after successfully defending a thesis on “Researches into synthesis and conversion of cyclane hydrocarbons” in Moscow in 1955. From 1956 to 1958, he served as director of Azerbaijan Oil Institute. In 1958, he was elected a corresponding and in 1968 a full member of Azerbaijan Academy of Sciences. Academician Mehdiyev supervised 10 ScD and 75 PhD students to completion. He founded a research school in the field of “Chemistry of naften hydrocarbons”.

His major research areas included chemistry of naften hydrocarbons and their derivatives. He worked out the methods of separating methylсyclopentane from oil fractions of toluene, cyclohexane and methylcyclohexane. He set (1954-1958) regulations of catalytic isomerization of a range of naftens with the widening and narrowing of the cycle.

He studied the mechanisms of aromatization of aliphatic hydrocarbons (1947-1953), catalytic dehydration of spirits and dehydrochloration of chlorinated cyclane hydrocarbons (1962-1964), photo-chemical chlorination of alkyl-substituted benzol (1961-1962). He developed the methods of condensation and co-condensation of carbonyl compounds and interaction of ethylene with propylene and butylene, modification of polymers. Soltan Mehdiyev proposed one-stage processes of producing benzonitrile, phthalimide and other compounds.

His major research interests laid in chemistry of naften hydrocarbons and their derivatives. He defined the mechanism of isomerization reaction of naften hydrocarbon, alkyl cyclohexane chlorination and regularities of oxidizing ammonolysis reactions. Soltan Mehdiyev lectured on organic chemistry and petrochemistry at BSU Faculty of Chemistry. He published 600 papers, including nine monographs. He was the holder of 100 authorship certificates. In 1979, he received the title “Merited Scientist”.