Umirbek Uspanovich Uspanov Candidate of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences (1937), Corresponding Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Kazakhstan (1962), Honored Scientist of the Republic of Kazakhstan (1961). The founder of the national school of soil scientists.

U.U. Uspanov was born on August 10, 1906 in the family of a poor shepherd in the village of Toguzak in the Saroy parish of the Kustanay district of the Turgay region. Currently, it is a “Novoshum” rural okrug of “Fedorov” district, Kostanay region. After the death of his father (1919), a heavy burden of everyday worries fell on the shoulders of his 13-year-old son, it was necessary to feed the family. For a bag of flour and a cup of salt, I had to bend my back in the workers. But he spoke confidently. "I want to become an assistant to the earth, I want bread to grow instead of gray wormwood, trees to bloom." And he achieved his goal.

After graduating from the three-year primary school in Toguzak village of the Kustanai district and the four-grade Russian-Kazakh school in the city of Kustanai in 1922. He is on the ticket of the Kostanay Komsomol “gubkom” and “gubpolitpros” with a group of peers going to the Saratov boarding school. Having successfully graduated from school in 1925, he continued his education at the “Orenburg Rabfak”, and in 1927-1931 at the Faculty of Agrochemistry and Soil Science of the Timiryazev Agricultural Academy in Leningrad and then Moscow. Here he listens to lectures by outstanding Russian soil scientists.

In 1931, Umirbek Uspanovich was the first among Kazakh youth to receive a higher professional education in the specialty of an agronomist-soil scientist. In 1931, he entered graduate school at the All-Union Institute of Fertilizers and Agro-Soil Science, and in 1932, in accordance with the decision of the kazakh district committee of the CPSU(b) and the Presidium of the USSR Academy of Sciences on training personnel for the Kazakh base of the USSR Academy of Sciences, he was sent to a special postgraduate course at the V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Institute. In very difficult economic conditions of the country, with limited material resources, Umirbek Uspanovich goes on an expedition to the inaccessible areas of the “Kunya Urgench takyrs” in the lower reaches of the Amu Darya River of Turkmenistan.

In May 1937 U.U. Uspanov successfully defended his dissertation for the degree of Candidate of Geological and mineralogical sciences on the topic "Genesis and reclamation of takyrs". The author puts forward and successfully defends the soil-geological theory of the genesis of “takyrs”, offers scientifically based methods of their reclamation. Scientific supervisors E.N. Ivanova and I.P. Gerasimov and official opponents L.I. Prasolov and B.B. Polynov highly appreciated Uspanov's dissertation work as "... a major and original contribution to the special literature on the soils of Central Asia". In 1940 "Genesis and Reclamation of Takyrs" was published as a separate book, awarded the prize of the Komsomol Central Committee and the certificate of honor of the LKSM Central Committee of Kazakhstan. This work is still relevant today.

In 1936, after returning to Alma-Ata, U.U. Uspanov began active scientific and scientific-organizational work in the Kazakh base of the USSR Academy of Sciences. On brown saline soils near the town of Dzhezkazgan on the right bank of the Kengir River, he organizes an experimental station for reclamation of desert soils. The methods of soil development developed here have made it possible to successfully grow many varieties of vegetable crops, shrubs and forage grasses. During the three-year pilot tests, 70 varieties of woody, shrub, fruit and berry and medicinal plants were bred, characterized by high frost, drought and salt resistance, suitable for widespread development in the arid desert of Central Kazakhstan. 

In addition to experimental work at the Dzhezkazgan station, U.U. Uspanov conducts extensive soil-geographical and soil-reclamation studies in the desert and desert-steppe regions of Central Kazakhstan: Dzhezkazgan-Ulutau. Torgaisk. Shalkar-Aral, Betpakdalinsky, Western Balkhash, the valleys of the Ishim, Nura, Sarysu, Tokrau rivers, etc. The scientific results of these studies were published in scientific articles by U.U. Uspanov: "On the soil conditions of subsidiary farms of Greater Dzhezkazgan" (1940), "Development of deserts of Central Kazakhstan" (1943), "On the evolution of views on brown soils" (1947), "On the development of water and land resources of Dzhezkazgan district" (1949), "Soils of the Dzhezkazgan industrial district" (1954) and many others.

In 1939, on the initiative of U.U. Uspanov, as part of Kazakh branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences organized the soil sector with further organizations on its basis in 1943 of the Soil-Botanical Institute of the Kazakh branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since the foundation of the Soil-Botanical Institute, Uspanov U.U. productively headed it for almost 25 years, and subsequently, with retirement, until 1993, he headed the Department of Geography and Cartography of soils and was a scientific consultant to the Institute of Soil Science.

During this period, the talent of U.U. Uspanov as a major organizer of science and scientific research in the Republic is most clearly manifested. A comprehensively thought-out strategy of scientific search in accordance with the requests of the national economy, a skillful concentration of scientific forces and material resources in crucial areas of soil science, a good creative climate in the team will allow Umirbek Uspanovich to bring the Institute of Soil Science of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR to a number of the largest scientific centers on the Eurasian continent. In a short time, about 100 million people were examined. 22.6 million hectares of the best quality chernozems and dark chestnut soils are recommended for priority development in the northern regions of Kazakhstan. These works largely contributed to the progress of agricultural production, the transformation of Kazakhstan into the country's largest granary for the production of high-quality commercial grain of hard and strong varieties. 

Under his leadership and direct participation, major soil-geographical and soil-reclamation studies were carried out, soil maps of all regions of Kazakhstan and a multicolored Soil map of the republic M 1:2500000 (1976) were compiled. This map is part of the global map, released later by the Soil Institute. Dokuchaeva V.V. Developed the scientific basis of classification, diagnostics and agricultural grouping of soils, identified the quantitative and qualitative composition of soil resources and reserves of arable land for their agricultural development. Edited by U.U. Uspanov published issues of the serial monograph "Soils of the Kazakh SSR" (1960-1983).

Umirbek Uspanovich was awarded the orders of "Badge of Honor", "Red Banner of Labor" and "V.I.Lenin" for the development of virgin and fallow lands for his achievements in the field of soil science and the development of issues of the development of land resources of Kazakhstan. As well as medals: "For valiant labor during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945"; "For labor valor"; "For the development of virgin lands"; "Great Gold Medal of the VSHV"; "Participant of the VSHV"; "For valiant labor" to the 100th anniversary of the birth of V.I.Lenin; "VDNH Gold Medal"; "To the participant of the labor Front" in commemoration of the XXX anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War; "Veteran of Labor"; "Forty years of victory in the Great Patriotic War.

Under the leadership of U.U. Uspanov, 9 of his students, well-known soil scientists, doctors of sciences and academicians defended their PhD theses.