Kuralbay Bukharbayev graduated from secondary school in 1979 with a gold medal. That same year, he entered Kazakh State University named after S.M. Kirov (now Al-Farabi Kazakh National University), and in 1984 he successfully graduated from the Department of Nuclear Physics. He holds a Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences degree (Russia, Moscow, 1997), is an Honorary Doctor of Electrical Engineering (Russia, Moscow, 2013), an academician of the International Academy of Electrical Engineering Sciences (Russia, Moscow, 2006), and of the World Academy of Integrated Safety Sciences (Russia, Moscow, 2009).
K.Bukharbayev began his career in 1984 as an engineer and young specialist at the Institute of High Energy Physics. In 1991, following the reorganization of the institute, he was transferred to the Institute of Physics and Technology of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan (NAS RK). Until 1996, he worked as a senior engineer, junior researcher, and researcher in the modeling laboratory of the Institute. In 1996 and 1997, he completed a research internship at the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, where he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on the topic: “The Effects of Heavy Cosmic Ray Nuclei on Semiconductor Devices"
From 1997 to 1999, he worked as a senior researcher at the Institute of Physics and Technology of NAS RK, and from 1999 to 2000, he served as Deputy Director for Foreign Economic Affairs at the Republican State Enterprise “Scientific and Technical Center for Intersectoral Information” under the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
From 2000 to 2005, K.Bukharbayev served in the diplomatic service under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan. He worked as First Secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the Republic of Turkey (Ankara), and later as Consul at the Consulate General in Istanbul. He holds the diplomatic rank of Consul.
In March 2005, K.Bukharbayev transferred from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Kazakhstan, where he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the newly established Committee for Industry and Scientific-Technical Development. From 2007 to 2014, he served as Adviser to the Minister of Industry and New Technologies, who was also Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan.
Since 2014, he worked as Deputy Director of the Department of Technological and Innovative Development under the Ministry of Investment and Development. In 2019, following the Presidential Decree of June 19, 2019, which transferred responsibilities for innovation and scientific-technical development to the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation and Aerospace Industry, he was appointed Deputy Director of the Department of Innovation Ecosystem within that Ministry.
K.Bukharbayev has been involved in the implementation of national programs for digitalization and industrial-innovative development, as well as in the development of Kazakhstan’s National Innovation System. He was the responsible executor of several national budget-funded scientific and technical programs. He participated in the development of the new Law “On Science” of the Republic of Kazakhstan and mechanisms for science funding, as well as in the development of the Strategy for Kazakhstan’s Development until 2025 and the Atomic Industry Development Strategy until 2020. He was the national coordinator of the international project “Atlas of Innovation in the Islamic World” implemented under the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
K.Bukharbayev is the author of over 50 scientific and technical articles and research papers, and the holder of two innovation patents. Since 2005, he has represented Kazakhstan in the Council of the International Organization Interelectro. In 2012, he was elected Chairman of the Interelectro Council and currently serves as an honorary member of the organization’s council.
For his contributions to strengthening and developing international cooperation in the field of electrical engineering, as well as for his achievements in public service, K.Bukharbayev has been awarded the “For Merits in Interelectro” medal, the Honorary Diploma of the Republic of Kazakhstan (2016), and anniversary medals from both Interelectro and the Republic of Kazakhstan. He currently serves as an associate professor at one of Kazakhstan’s leading universities.
