Zafar Iqbal was born on 23 December 1952 in Sylhet. His father, Faizur Rahman Ahmed, was a police officer.His mother is Ayesha Akhter Khatun. In his childhood, he traveled various parts of Bangladesh. This was because of his father's transferring jobs. Iqbal was encouraged to write by his father in early life. Iqbal passed Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exam from Bogra Zilla School in 1968 and Higher Secondary School Certificate (HSC) exam from Dhaka College in 1970. He earned his BSc in physics from the University of Dhaka in 1976. In the same year Iqbal went to University of Washington to obtain his PhD which he earned in 1982.
He married Yasmeen Haque in 1978. She is currently the Dean of the Life Science Department and Head of the department of Physics at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST). They have a son, Nabil, and a daughter, Yeshim. Iqbal's elder brother, Humayun Ahmed, was a writer and filmmaker. His younger brother, Ahsan Habib, is the editor of the satirical magazine, Unmad (Mad) and a cartoonist.
After obtaining his PhD degree, Iqbal worked as a post-doctoral researcher at California Institute of Technology (Caltech). This was from 1983 to 1988. He then joined Bell Communications Research (Bellcore) as a research scientist. He left the institute in 1994. Upon returning to Bangladesh he joined the faculty of the Computer Science and Engineering department at SUST. Later he became the head of the Electrical and Electronic Engineering department (EEE).He also serves as the Director of BTCL and Vice President of Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad committee.Iqbal played a leading role in founding Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad. He popularized mathematics among Bangladeshi youths at local and international level. In 2011 he won Rotary SEED Award (Science, Education and Economic Development) for his contribution in the field of education.
Iqbal started writing stories from a very early age. He wrote his first short story at the age of seven.[While studying in Dhaka University Iqbal's story Copotronik Bhalobasa was published in a local magazine. Later he rewrote the story and published it as collection of stories titled Copotronik Sukh Dukho.Iqbal is one of the first writers of science fiction in the Bengali language. He mainly writes for younger readers. He is best known for his novels for youngsters. He also wrote several articles on physics and mathematics. He is regularly a Columnist for mainstream newspapers.
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