Day 6

Been a tough day today. Still fighting jet lag and the office I’m in is far too hot. Been thinking of moving office to one on the lower floors where it is a little cooler. Perhaps I am too fussy, but sharing with colleagues is all a bit strange after several years in my own office. There’s a mad dash to get funding applications in for tomorrow; it was my fault when I decided that I could write a second proposal within 24 hours. But it is mostly complete. The procedures for raising funds here are not completely ironed out and trying to determine what is required is often a case of banging on several doors, opening up to see who’s inside and asking them all the questions you have. I’m not used to the ways of a new university, where everything is still undergoing constant revision. It also bespeaks of a fusion (or is it a clash?) between Kazakhstan bureaucracy and Western practises. There’s currently no infrastructure to conduct my kind of research, the ability to get chemicals in becomes a serious headache with waiting periods that could be up to 12 months. But ultimately these are challenges to be worked on and solved. Having spoken to one of my colleagues, they appeared to be very down after a couple of years of not doing anything because they felt they were unable to do anything. I couldn’t take that lying down and it will become my battle to get things set up.

The university is incredible. The city too. Without the Cyrillic everywhere, you could imagine yourself to be in any modern Western city. It put me in mind of my trip to Almaty early last year, where I gave some lectures at Al Farabi University. It is known that at present (until students start graduating from Nazarbayev Uni) that Al Farabi is number 1 in Kazakhstan. From the outside the buildings are great, but when you go inside you then see how time and lack of investment has taken hold. Little bits of equipment that we take for granted back at Brighton University are coveted and highly protected. Trying to do any advanced analysis is never going to happen because they cannot afford to replace any components or get them serviced. You go into the loos and they are (sorry to say) awful. They once were plush and new and now are to be avoided unless you have a strong constitution. But that is my concern about Nazarbayev Uni; will it happen there too? There is a chance to help contribute into making Nazarbayev Uni a leading light in this part of the world and over a longer period of time within the top 500 world rankings. Over the coming years there will be a large influx of top end analytical equipment; HRTEM, SEM, XPS, etc, all the kit that I dreamed about. All the necessary machines required to take my research to the next level. I guess it is whether one can change some of the red tape to streamline the development cycles or whether one can endure the paperwork, work the system whilst exercising great patience in waiting for that chemical to turn up.

Ray