Dr. Aliya Assubayeva is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy, Nazarbayev University (NU). Her research focuses on water security, transboundary cooperation, and sustainable development, focusing on Central Asia, Europe, Latin America, and East Africa.

Trained in water management, agricultural economics, and public policy, she previously served as a Research Associate at the Centre for International Development and Environmental Research (ZEU) at Justus Liebig University Giessen (Germany). Dr. Assubayeva received her PhD in Public Policy from Nazarbayev University, where her doctoral research examined water security in Central Asia. Her work integrates environmental governance analysis with extensive field-based research.

Her research and teaching have been recognised through competitive international awards and fellowships, including the Teaching Excellence Award (NU, 2021), JLU Early Career Researcher Grant (2022), OSCE Academy Research Fellowship (2022), and Erasmus+ Teaching Mobility Grant (2024). She currently serves as Associate Editor of the Central Asian Journal of Water Research, as an External Member of ZEU-JLU, and as Principal Investigator of the Water Governance Cluster at UN SDSN Kazakhstan and PI at the DAAD-funded SDGnexus Network project at NU.