Dr. Aida Abdykanova is an Archeologist and an Associate Professor in the Anthropology and International Development department and MA in Anthropology and International Development Program at the American University of Central Asia. She holds her Ph.D. from the Institute of Archeology and Ethnography at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2007, Russia) and received her specialized degree in History and Regional Studies from Kyrgyz State National University named after Jusup Balasagyn (2003, Kyrgyzstan). 

Dr. Abdykanova joined AUCA in 2007. Since 2014, she has served as an archeological expert of the Cultural Heritage Management department at the Ministry of Culture, Information, and Tourism of the Kyrgyz Republic. She is the Head of the Naryn Archaeological Project (NAP) at the University of Central Asia (UCA), which aims to conduct complex research on archaeological complexes on the territory of the UCA Naryn Campus from the period of Mesolithic Age through the Middle Ages. Currently, she is the co-director of the Kyrgyz-Russian archaeological project focused on excavations at Mesolithic and Neolithic sites Obishir and Surungur in Batken. 

Dr. Abdykanova participated in a series of seminars on the study of cultural heritage in Central Asia organized by the National Research Institute and Cultural Property in Tokyo, the Institute of History and Cultural Heritage of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic (2011-2015), and the Cultural Heritage Preservation Training course in Asia and the Pacific in 2013, preservation and restoration of wooden structures (2013, Japan). She is a member of the World Archaeological Congress, the Iaido Shiseikan Federation, and the All Japan Kendo Federation.