Dr Siddharth Shanker Saxena is Director of the Cambridge Central Asia Forum, Jesus College Cambridge and a senior scientist at Cavendish Lab, University of Cambridge. In physics, Dr Shanker Saxena works on physics of materials, superconductivity and magnetism. He also works on knowledge systems, social and political development, religion and institutional history of Central Asia and its neighbourhood. He has launched science and technology projects in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. He directed Centre for Materials and Micro-systems, Trento, Italy and the Centre for High Technology, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He has conducted field based research in Central Asia since 1991, particularly in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, China, Russia and Afghanistan.