Science Advisor to the Prime Minister of Malaysia and holder of the Tuanku Chancellor Chair at Universiti Sains Malaysia. He was the former Director of the Institute of Advanced Studies, United Nations University, and Co-Chair of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. He is a member of the Arab Fund Fellowship Program, Senior Advisory Group on Technical Assistance and Cooperation of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and the Executive Board of International Council for Science (ICSU).

He served as the Secretary General of the Society for the Advancement of Breeding Researches in Asia and Oceania (SABRAO) from 1981-1989 and was Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia from 1992-2000. He was the Founding President of the Genetics Society of Malaysia.

His professional interests include biodiplomacy, education for sustainable development, and biotechnology and biodiversity policies for developing countries. Recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship (1981) and a Gold Medal Award from the Rotary Research Foundation (1999), he is a Fellow of the Academy of Sciences Malaysia, the Academy of Sciences of the Developing World (TWAS), the World Academy of Art and Science, and the Islamic World Academy of Sciences.

In 1998 he received the Langkawi Award, a national laureate for outstanding contribution in the field of environment in Malaysia. Three species known to science are named after him: a beetle (Paleosepharia zakrii); a cicada (Pomponia zakrii ), and a pitcher plant (Nepenthes zakriana ).