Professor Gamkrelidze is an eminent Georgian linguist whose career has been connected with the Georgian Academy of Sciences where he began as a researcher in its Institute of Linguistics. He rose to be the director of the Tsereteli Institute of Oriental Studies of the Georgian Academy and became its Honorary Director in 2000. He was the Chair of Structural and Applied Linguistics at the Tbilisi State University from 1960-1999 and continues to be the Chair of General and Applied Linguistics at that University. He was elected President of the Georgian Academy of Sciences in 2003 and became its Honorary President in 2013.
The research of Professor Gamkrelidze has spanned a wide range of languages including the Kartvelian languages connected with Georgia, and other ancient languages, especially Hittite and the development of the Hittite script. His seminal work on Indo-European languages, their development and spread, co-authored by V. V. Ivanov, was published to great aclaim in English in 1994/5. This instantly became the standard by which the studies of early language development are still measured. He has published his research on a large number of lisguistic problems including basic language structure, phonology, and the development of the alphabetic script.
He holds many highly esteemed international prizes as shown by his winning the Lenin Prize and the Alexander von Humboldt Prize. He has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Bonn (Germany) and the University of Chicago (USA). Professor Gamkrelidze has been honored by academic institutions of the highest level world over and has been elected to membership of the Russian Academy of Science, The British Academy, and the National Academy of Sciences of the US, among many others. He has held various visiting professorships in Europe, Asia and the US.