Leading Scientists from Germany and Switzerland Deliver Leadership Lectures at the Faculty of Geography and Environmental Sciences

On 4-5 November 2026, the Faculty of Geography and Environmental Sciences of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University hosted three leadership lectures given by scientists from universities in Germany and Switzerland.

The series opened on 4 November with a lecture by Professor Roozbeh Mirzaei of Justus Liebig University Giessen (Germany), a specialist in tourism management, tourism marketing and sustainable tourism. His lecture, “Leadership in Higher Education: Lessons from Justus Liebig University Giessen,” focused on leadership in higher education. He shared the management experience of a German university and discussed how it can be applied in Kazakhstan’s academic environment. The lecture was organized by the UNESCO Chair on Sustainable Development.

On 5 November, Professor Christian Huggel of the University of Zurich (Switzerland) spoke to students, master’s and doctoral students, and faculty members. He is one of the world’s leading experts in glaciology, climate change, natural hazards and risk assessment. His lecture, “The big Blatten glacier disaster in Switzerland: assessment and lessons learned in terms of disaster risk management and inter-country comparison,” examined the 2025 glacier collapse that destroyed the Swiss village of Blatten. Professor Huggel explained how the threat was assessed and what lessons the event holds for disaster risk management, and he compared approaches across countries. The topic is especially relevant for Kazakhstan, as the faculty conducts research on outburst-prone moraine-glacial lakes and debris-flow risks in the Ile and Kungei Alatau ranges. The lecture was organized by the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology.

On the same day, Professor Christian Opp of the University of Marburg (Germany), a specialist in physical geography, hydrology and soil science, gave a lecture at the Kazakhstan-China Laboratory. He presented the “Global Environmental Syndromes Series” and discussed two environmental syndromes of Central Asia: the Aral Sea Syndrome and the Dust Bowl Syndrome.

The lectures drew strong interest from the audience and ended with lively discussions. Meetings with international colleagues strengthen the faculty’s international scientific cooperation and open new opportunities for joint research and academic mobility.