Sufi Zafar

Sufi Zafar
Alma mater	Syracuse University
Occupation(s)	Physicist, Electrical Engineer
Years active	1991–present
Employer(s)	IBM Research, Thomas J. Watson Research Center
Known for	CMOS-based biosensor technologies, electrical degradation and charge transport in dielectric thin films

Sufi Zafar is an expert in physics and electrical engineering, with a focus on CMOS-based biosensor technologies. She obtained her doctorate in physics from Syracuse University in 1991 and is presently engaged in research at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center, part of IBM Research.

Awards and recognition

In 2007, Zafar was honored as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) due to her investigations into electrical degradation and charge transport phenomena within high permittivity and SiO2 dielectric thin films, particularly relevant to CMOS and memory device technologies. Later, in 2023, she was elevated to the status of IEEE Fellow for her significant work on CMOS-compatible biosensors and the development of reliability models for high permittivity field effect transistors.

Her contributions to semiconductor device-based biosensors impacting biology, healthcare, and the Internet of Things (IoT) earned her the FIAP Career Lectureship Award from APS in 2021. The following year, she was appointed as an APS Distinguished Lecturer.