Muhammed Zafar Iqbal (; ; born 23 December 1952) is a Bangladeshi science fiction author, physicist, academic, activist and former professor of computer science and engineering and former head of the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST). He achieved his PhD from University of Washington. After working 18 years as a scientist at California Institute of Technology and Bell Communications Research, he returned to Bangladesh and joined Shahjalal University of Science and Technology as a professor of Computer Science and Engineering. He retired from his teaching profession in October 2018. He is considered one of Bangladesh's top science fiction writers. Early life and education Muhammed Zafar Iqbal was born on 23 December 1952 in Sylhet of the then East Pakistan. His father, Faizur Rahman Ahmed, was a police officer who was killed in the Liberation War of Bangladesh. His mother was Ayesha Akhter Khatun. He spent his childhood in different parts of Bangladesh because of the transferring nature of his father's job. His elder brother, Humayun Ahmed, was a prominent writer and filmmaker. His younger brother, Ahsan Habib, is a cartoonist who is serving as the editor of the satirical magazine, Unmad. He has three sisters - Sufia Haider, Momtaz Shahid and Rukhsana Ahmed. Iqbal passed the SSC exam from Bogra Zilla School in 1968 and the HSC exam from Dhaka College in 1970. He earned his bachelor's and master's in physics from the University of Dhaka in 1976 and then went to the University of Washington to earn his Ph.D. in 1982. Career Academic After obtaining his PhD degree, Iqbal worked as a post-doctoral researcher at California Institute of Technology (Caltech) from 1983 to 1988 (mainly on Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics). He then joined Bell Communications Research (Bellcore), a separate corporation from the Bell Labs (now Telcordia Technologies), as a research scientist. He left the institute in 1994. Upon returning to Bangladesh, Iqbal joined the faculty of the CSE department at SUST. Iqbal serves as the vice president of Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad committee. He played a leading role in founding the Bangladesh Mathematical Olympiad and popularized mathematics among Bangladeshi youths at local and international level. In 2011, he won the Rotary SEED Award for his contribution in the field of education. On 26 November 2013, Iqbal and his wife professor Haque applied for resignation soon after the university authority had