Aizhan Mussagaliyeva is a PhD and Associate Professor with over 13 years of academic experience. She is the author of more than 40 scientific publications, including papers indexed in Web of Science and Scopus, as well as publications recommended by the national academic authority of Kazakhstan and proceedings of international conferences. She has authored 2 monographs and 1 textbook approved by the Republican Educational and Methodological Council, and holds 3 intellectual property certificates. She has completed international research internships at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (Germany), University of Salzburg (Austria). She serves as the Principal Investigator of the grant-funded research project AP26100641, entitled “Comprehensive ecological and economic assessment of urban land for sustainable land use: the case of the Almaty agglomeration.” She has participated in several nationally funded research projects focused on spatial analysis of sustainable development and digital transformation of territorial management, including: – Modelling recreational capacity using UAVs, GIS and AI tools to prevent overtourism in Ile- Alatau National Park; – Comprehensive geographical assessment of sustainable development of major cities in Kazakhstan; – Development of an atlas-based information system for integrated spatial analysis of quality of life across regions of Kazakhstan within the Digital Kazakhstan programme; – Sustainable development of natural-economic and socio-economic systems in West Kazakhstan in the context of green growth. She delivers courses at undergraduate, Master’s and PhD levels, serves as the coordinator of the Master’s programme “7M05203 - Geography”, and supervises both Master’s and PhD students. Under her supervision, one PhD student has successfully defended their dissertation. She has also completed certified courses in “Sustainable Cities” (Johns Hopkins University) and “Modern Issues in Food & Agriculture” (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign). Since 2020, she has been Deputy Head of Department for Research, Innovation and International Relations at the Department of Geography, Land Management and Cadastre, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. Since 2021, she has served as Academic Secretary of the Dissertation Council. From 2022 to 2024, she was Executive Editor of the journal Vestnik KazNU. Geography Series. She was awarded the title “Best University Teacher - 2025”