 D. student, then as a Junior Researcher, Scientific Secretary and Head of the Department of Zoological Institute, Armenian SSR Academy of Sciences.In 1958, he defended his Kandidat thesis on reptiles of Armenia and their zoogeography (under the supervision of Dr. Sergey A. Chernov).Later on, studies of the Caucasian herpetofauna, and the rock lizards in particular, made him a recognized scientist.