Risbay Djuraev

Risbay Khaydarovich Djuraev (Uzbek spelling Risboy Jo'rayev) was born on 25 July 1946 in the Sirdaryo district of what is now the Sirdaryo region. He graduated from the Tashkent Polytechnic Institute in 1968 as a hydropower engineer, taught there and later worked in a party organisation.

From 1977 to 1988 he was first deputy chairman and then chairman of the Uzbek SSR State Committee for Vocational Education. He served as deputy minister of public education in 1988–1989 and, in 1989–1992, as head of the department of culture, education and health in the Cabinet of Ministers. In 1986 he received the Order of the Red Banner of Labour.

From 1992 to 1998 Djuraev was rector of Gulistan State University. In 1998–2000 he was first deputy minister of higher and secondary specialised education, and from 2000 to 2004 Minister of Public Education of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

He defended his candidate's dissertation in 1987 and his doctorate in pedagogical sciences in 1995, and became a professor in 1996. In 2004–2009 he headed the Tashkent Qori Niyoziy Uzbek Research Institute of Pedagogical Sciences; since 2009 he has been editor-in-chief of the journal Uzluksiz ta'lim and head of a department at the institute.

His work covers continuous education, the theory and history of pedagogy, and innovative technologies and computerisation in education. According to published biographies he is the author of more than 600 scholarly works, including 20 monographs and 14 patents, and led the team behind the Sense-Box electronic interactive whiteboard. In 2017 he was elected a full member (academician) of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan.

His honours include the Order of Friendship (Do'stlik, 2003), the Aleksandr Nebolsin prize of the Foundation for Support and Development of Vocational Education (1999) and the Toshmuhammad Qori Niyoziy medal (1996).