´ºÃÎÖ±²¥

As part of his semester-long sabbatical, geography professor Stephen Young has been traveling around the world. Recently he was in Almaty, Kazakhstan to present his research at an Arid regions conference convened by the Geography Department at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in collaboration with the University of Oxford.

Formerly a part of the USSR, Kazakhstan is now officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic. Kazakhstan shares borders with Russia, China, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, and also adjoins a large part of the Caspian Sea. It is the world's largest landlocked country, and the ninth largest country in the world.

Professor Young was warmly welcomed by the geography faculty at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. He sent along the following pictures.

• Image from downtown Almaty, Kazakhstan - city where Al-Farabi Kazakh National University is located - looking at the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains
• Image from the campus of Al-Farabi Kazakh National University
• Professor Young at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University with Dr. Kassymkanova Khaini-Kamal, Director of the Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics (on professor Young's right side) and another professor from the Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics.