Zakir is an electrical engineer by training, with PhD from Aalborg University, Denmark. He has been working in renewable energy (RE) and electric mobility sector for past 12 years, with around 4 years of RE industry experience in Europe. He, in close collaboration with the Danish National transmission system operator, Energinet.dk, has extensively worked on the Danish grid. He is currently working as Associate Professor with the Department of Energy Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, where the focus of his work continues to be on grid integration of renewables, grid integration of Electric Vehicles (EVs), power system operation under high penetration of renewable generation and EVs. He is an Editor of IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy, Editor of IETE Technical Review, Guest Editor of International Journal of Power and Energy Systems, a Senior Member of IEEE, IEEE Power & Energy Society, IEEE Smart Grid Community, IEEE Industrial Electronics Society, and Danish Smart Grid Research Forum. He is also involved in various BIS committees on EV charging infrastructure. His areas of research interest include grid & system integration of wind and solar power, power system dynamics, EV charging infrastructure and EV grid integration, smart and micro grids, and WAMPACS.
He is recipient of 'IREDA-NIWE Award for Best Research Work in Wind Energy'. He is a registered expert in Joint Research Centre (JRC) European commission. He is also recipient of Young Faculty Award IIT Bombay, and several best paper and Industry awards.