Md Zafar Iqbal

Md Zafar Iqbal is renowned as a sci-fi and teenage fiction writer in Bangladesh. He is also a physicist, professor of computer science, and an activist. At the age of 63, he is a powerful motivation for youth. His father Faizur Rahman Ahmed fought for his country and accepted death for his motherland.

Md Zafar Iqbal was born on December 23, 1952. He is the 2nd child of Ayesha Akhter Khatun and Faizur Rahman Ahmed (Freedom fighter). Humayun Ahmed is the older brother of Md Zafar Iqbal. Humayun was also a famous writer, filmmaker and a professor of chemistry. He is the elder brother of Ahasan Habib who is a cartoonist. Md Zafar Iqbal has three sisters also. Yasmeen Haque his better-half is also a physicist. Md Zafar Iqbal passed SSC from Bogra Zilla School in 1968 and passed HSC from Dhaka College in 1970. He graduated from Dhaka University in physics in 1976 and accepted his Ph.D. at the University Of Washington in 1982. After his Ph.D. he got a call from California Institute of Technology(Caltech) as a postdoctoral researcher. He worked there from 1983 to 1988. Then he joined Bell Communications Research(Bellcore) as a research scientist for 6 years.

After 1992, Md Zafar Iqbal came back to Bangladesh. After returning, he joined the CSE department at Sahajalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) at Sylhet. Later he became head of the EEE department.

Career:

From his very first life, he drew cartoons for newspapers. Then he first published a short sci-fi story. The name was “Copotronic Valobasa” (Copotronic love) published in weekly magazine “Bichitra”. After that, his first published book was “Copotronic Sukh Dukkho” (Copotronic happiness and sorrow) was a collection of short stories. After that, he wrote many books. A total number of his books is 182. “Ami Topu” “Amar Bandhu Rashed” “Nishikonna” “Dipu Number Two” “Project Nebula” etc is his most popular books. A film was made based on his book named Dipu Number Two. He also writes columns for newspapers and magazines.

This great author received Bangla Academy Award in 2004. He also earned much honor in his both scientist and literature career. As like American Alumni Association Award in 2005, Sheltec Literary Award in 2003, Uro Child Literary Award in 2004, One Of The 10 Living eminent Bengali in 2005 etc. Md Zafar Iqbal even has three patents for his work on physics. He is also an active member of Shahbag protests 2013.

Md Zafar Iqbal now lives in Sylhet with his wife and two children.