APersonIndependent states
Kanysh Satpayev
Geologist (1899–1964), discoverer of the Zhezkazgan copper deposit and first president of the Kazakh Academy of Sciences.
Kanysh Satpayev was born in Pavlodar Region and qualified as a geologist at the Tomsk technological institute. From 1926 he worked in the Zhezkazgan area.
His research proved Zhezkazgan to be one of the world's largest copper deposits, on which a major industrial district was built, and he led the team that mapped Kazakhstan's mineral resources.
When the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR was founded in 1946 he became its first president. The city of Satbayev and the Kazakh National Technical University in Almaty bear his name.
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Updated: October 2, 2026