Malkhaz Grigorʹevich Abdushelishvili (February 28, 1926 – February 23, 1998) was a famous Soviet and Georgian scientist, one of the founders of the Georgian scientific school of Anthropology, Academician of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (GAS), Meritorious Scholar of Georgia, Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor.
Between 1948 and 1998 Abdushelishvili was a research fellow (1948–1952), senior research fellow (1952–1959), and head of the Department of Anthropology of the Institute of History and Ethnology of the Georgian Academy of Sciences (GAS).
He was a chief expert of UNESCO in anthropology (1964–1998), an honorary member of the European Anthropological Association (1973), and honorary member of the Indian Society of Human Genetics (1975).
The award-winning popular science book on human evolution Who Asked the First Question?
Origins of Human Choral Singing, Intelligence, Language and Speech (2006) is dedicated to the memory of Abdushelishvili and his lifelong friend, Russian anthropologist Valery Alekseyev.