Karimbek Arystanbekovich Kurmanaliev has been elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of Makhambet Utemisov West Kazakhstan University.

Karimbek Kurmanaliev is a prominent representative of Kazakhstan’s academic and higher education community. He is a Full Member (Academician) of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Doctor of Philological Sciences, and Professor.

He was born on April 20, 1962, in the Baidibek District of the Turkestan Region.

In 1986, he graduated from Ablai Khan Kazakh University of International Relations and World Languages, qualifying as a teacher of German and Kazakh. In 1991, he completed his postgraduate studies at the Akhmet Baitursynuly Institute of Linguistics. He also graduated from Kainar University with a degree in Law.

Karimbek Kurmanaliev has held senior positions at leading higher education institutions in Kazakhstan. At various times, he served as Vice-Rector of L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University and Ablai Khan Kazakh University of International Relations and World Languages. He also served as Rector of Kainar University. He headed the Department of Higher Education at the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

He currently serves as a Non-Staff Adviser to the Minister of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan and as Vice President of the National Academy of Natural Sciences of Kazakhstan.

K. A. Kurmanaliev is the author of six monographs devoted to issues of general Turkic linguistics, comparative grammar of the Kazakh and foreign languages, derivatology, dialectology, and terminology in Kazakh linguistics. He has also authored four university textbooks, 15 teaching manuals, and more than 200 scholarly articles.

Throughout his career, Karimbek Kurmanaliev has successfully combined his academic and teaching activities with active public service. From 2022 to 2026, he served as a member of the National Kurultai under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. He is also a member of the Commission on the Further Development of the State Language under the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan, an Independent Director of the Board of Directors of the National Academy of Sciences under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Acting Chairperson of the Public Council of Astana.

Karimbek Kurmanaliev’s many years of academic, educational, and public service have been highly recognized by the state. He has been awarded the Parasat and Kurmet Orders, the departmental Badge of Distinction “For Merits in the Development of Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan,” as well as the honorary badge “Honored Worker of Education” of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan.