Aleksandras Vanagas graduated Vilnius University (Lithuanian language and literature studies) in 1959.
Since then till the death he worked in the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, was its director between 1990 and 1995.
Also, since 1990 he taught in Vytautas Magnus University (was the head of the Lithuanian language department) and Vilnius Pedagogical University.
[1] The main research area of Aleksandras Vanagas was Baltic onomastics (hydronyms, toponyms, anthroponyms) and Baltic ethnogenesis.
He guided many linguistic expeditions and collected onomastic data.