Dr. Nurtaeva holds an Honors Diploma (1974) and Candidate of Science degrees in Chemistry from Moscow State University (1979 and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Oklahoma State University (1999). She has more than 30 years of teaching experience including at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Oklahoma State University, New Hamphire Technical College, Southern New Hampshire University. She has done research in Chemistry, Technology and Radiation Dosimetry at KazGU, Moscow State University, Oklahoma State University and the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute at National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda (USA) and registered 17 patents.