Chairperson - Cambridge Central Asia Forum, Director - Cambridge Kazakhstan Centre,

Prof. Siddharth Shanker Saxena (Montu) trained as an anthropologist, historian and a physicist. He is a Fellow of Jesus College and Academic staff member of the Cavendish Laboratory at University of Cambridge.

Born in Lucknow, India, his education took him to Britain, France, Germany, the Soviet Union and Switzerland. He got his doctorate in Historical Anthropology of Islam in Khorassan. From the United States he came to Trinity College, Cambridge, UK on a Commonwealth Trust-Trinity Scholarship to study for a Ph.D. at the Cavendish Laboratory. He then did Post-Doctoral research at University of Groningen, The Netherlands and University College London followed by election to a Research Fellowship at Girton College, Cambridge.

Prof. Saxena has been involved in field based research in Central Asia since the early nineties with particular focus on Bukhara in Uzbekistan and the Ferghana Valley (which is shared by the Uzbeks, Kyrgyz and the Tajiks). Since 2002 he has also been working in Afghanistan, Almaty and Astana in Kazakhstan and Kashgar in China. In the past he has also spent extended periods in Iran and Egypt for field work. He has also worked on Russia, Pakistan, Ukraine, GCC Countries and Azerbaijan and The Caucuses. Siddharth Saxena is consulted frequently by several international organisations in the UN system and otherwise and is on Cambridge Middle East working group, Cambridge India Partnership Group, Cambridge International Development Forum (China), Mongolia and Inner Asia Studies Unit Management Committee, UK India Business Forum next Generation Advisory Board, British Uzbek and Kazakhs Society Boards. He guides a number of institutional development projects in Central Asia.

He has discovered four new superconductors, including the first ferromagnetic superconductor. He was awarded the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) Young Scientist Medal in 2006 and a Medal for Service to Education in Kazakhstan, the Kazakh minister of education in April 2009 and an Honorary Doctorate and Professorship in November 2009. Honorary Professor of Astana Economic Forum 2012. Presidential Medals of Honour from booth Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in 2011. In 2011 he was appointed together with Lord Waverly to review and renew Foreign Affairs Select Committee Report on Central Asia and South Causes.