Budag Abdulali oghlu Budagov was born in the Chobankara village, Zangibasar (now Masis) region of the Republic of Armenia.

After graduating from junior high school in the village of Mehmandar, Masis region, in 1940, he entered the Azerbaijan Pedagogical College in Irevan, which he graduated from in 1947.

In 1951, he graduated from the Azerbaijan Pedagogical Institute, in 1955 - postgraduate study at the Institute of Geography of the former USSR Academy of Sciences, in 1955 he defended his candidate's dissertation on the topic "Geomorphology of the South-East Caucasus" in Moscow.

Since 1955, B.Budagov worked at the Institute of Geography of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan.

From 1955 to 1967, he worked as a junior researcher, senior researcher, head of the department of physical geography. During these years, he was the scientific secretary of the Azerbaijan Geographical Society.

In 1967, B.Budagov defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic of "Geomorphology and new tectonics of the Azerbaijani part of the Greater Caucasus".

Since 1967, he was the head of the newly created "Landscape Studies" department at the Institute of Geography.

From 1974 to 1988, he was the deputy director for scientific work at the Institute of Geography of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, and from that year (1988) until the end of his life, he worked as the director of the institute.

In 1976, Academician B.A. Budagov was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan, and in 1989, its full member. From 1990 until the end of his life, he was the president of the Azerbaijan Geographical Society.

Budagov's scientific activity is devoted to the study of geomorphology, landscape, new tectonic movements, toponymy, ecology of the territory of the Azerbaijan Republic, environmental protection, and the development of school geography. B.A. Budagov is a prominent researcher of Azerbaijani geography and organizer of science. Budagov is also known in many foreign countries. Budagov is the author of numerous works, articles and monographs devoted to modern scientific problems.

Budagov was the first in the history of Azerbaijani science to deal with such important issues as “Memory of the Lands of the Turkic Peoples” (1994), “Explanatory Dictionary of Toponyms of Azerbaijani Origin in Armenia” (1998) together with G. Geybullayev, “Explanatory Dictionary of Turkic Toponyms of Georgia” (2004), “Natural Landscapes of Azerbaijan and Their Protection” (1974), “Geomorphology of the Southern Slope of the Greater Caucasus” (1969), “Turkic Toponyms of Eurasia” (1998), “Modern and Ancient Glaciers of the Greater Caucasus, Part of Azerbaijan” (1965) and published books on these issues.

In 1962, field research was conducted here by Budag Budagov at the invitation of Academician of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan Tavi Arifkhan oglu Maklyakov. A similar expedition was later organized in the Fergana Valley in 1967. Academician B.A. Budagov is one of the founders of scientific schools of geomorphology, landscape science and toponymy in the modern geography of Azerbaijan. Under his supervision, up to 50 candidates of geographical sciences have been trained. Some of them are scientists working in the countries of Central Asia and Dagestan. His work "Geomorphology and New Tectonics of the South-East Caucasus", published in 1973, and was awarded the Przhevalsky Gold Medal of the USSR Geographical Society at the All-Union Competition in 1978.

B.Budagov was elected a member of the Academic Council of the Geographical Society of the former USSR at its congresses in 1970, 1980, 1985 and 1990 for his scientific and organizational merits. At the same time, he was a member of the editorial board of the journals Geomorphology, published in Moscow, Problems of Desert Use, published in Ashgabat, and Geography and Natural Resources, published in Irkutsk. B. Budagov was one of the organizers of scientific symposium USSR-India, USSR-Bulgaria, USSR-France and was their scientific director for Azerbaijan. He participated and presented reports at international scientific conferences held in the Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey. B.Budagov was awarded a number of medals and diplomas from the Exhibition of Economic Achievements of the USSR (1982) and the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR for his scientific achievements (1988). In 2000, he was awarded the Order of Glory of Azerbaijan for his services to national geographical science. Academician B.A.Budagov was a member of the Presidium of the Higher Attestation Commission under the President of the Republic, Chairman of the Commission on Toponymy under the Milli Majlis of Azerbaijan, and Chairman of the Republican Council of Elders in 1997.