KAMSHAT M. TUSSUPOVA is a PhD in Water Resources Engineering, a leading expert in sustainable water supply and sanitation, and since 2024, she serves as the Chairperson of the Board – Rector of the Kazakh National University of Water Management and Irrigation (KazNUWMI). Her career bridges academic leadership and active scientific and project work aimed at addressing Kazakhstan’s most pressing water security and sustainability challenges.

She earned her PhD from Lund University (Sweden) with a dissertation titled "Supplying rural Kazakhstan with safe water and sanitation". With over 15 years of experience in the water sector, Dr. Tusupova specializes in integrated water resource management, rural water access, sanitation, and the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 6.1 and 6.2). Included among the world’s top 50 PhD students in Applied Systems Analysis as part of the Young Scientist Summer Program (2015) at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), Austria.

She is the principal investigator of several major national and international research projects, including:
- ​“Towards sustainable access to safe drinking water and sanitation in rural Kazakhstan: challenges of achieving SDG 6.1 and 6.2” (2022–2024, funded by the Republic of Kazakhstan),
- “Achieving the SDGs on water, sanitation and wastewater in Kazakhstan using artificial intelligence and machine learning” (2024),
- “Institutional capacity building in the water sector of Kazakhstan” (as project facilitator, Lund University, 2020–2024).

Dr. Tusupova has worked extensively with international organizations. As a WASH expert for UNICEF Kazakhstan (2020–2022), she led the development of methodological frameworks for water, sanitation, and hygiene in schools and healthcare facilities. She also served as a water security advisor to the President’s Delivery Unit (2022–2023).

Her involvement in national scientific and policy-making structures includes:
- ​Member of the National Council on Science and Technology under the President of Kazakhstan (2023–2024),
- Member of the National Scientific Council on Water Resources, Flora and Fauna, and Ecology (2021–2024),
- Member of the Public Council under the Mazhilis and the Young Experts Club under the Senate of Kazakhstan,
- Member of dissertation councils in Ecology and Public Health.

Her contributions to Kazakhstan’s water sector have been formally recognized with the national awards “Excellence in Water Management” and “Excellence in Ecology” (2024). In 2022, she was named the woman with the most significant contribution to achieving SDG 6 in Kazakhstan by the United Nations SDG Fund.

Dr. Tusupova is a lifelong member of the European Geosciences Union (Hydrology section), editor of the special issue "Future of Water Management in Central Asia" in the journal Water, and a published author in leading journals such as Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies and Journal of Cleaner Production.

As Rector of KazNUWMI, she is focused on training the next generation of water professionals, expanding research capacity, and leading projects that shape a sustainable water future for Kazakhstan and the wider Central Asian region.