Professor Dr. Datuk Osman Bakar is now Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, and Deputy CEO of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies–Malaysia. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Prince al-Waleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University, Washington D.C.; Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Civilisational Dialogue in the University of Malaya; and Visiting Research Fellow at Doshisha University in Kyoto, Japan.

Emeritus Professor Bakar received his high school education at the prestigious boarding school Malay College Kuala Kangsar, known then as “Eaton of the East”. He studied mathematics at Woolwich Polytechnic in the University of London, where he obtained his B.Sc. (1970) and M.Sc. in Mathematics & Algebraic group theory (1971) at Bedford College of the same University.  Later he pursued postgraduate studies at the Department of Religion, Temple University where he earned his doctorate in Islamic Philosophy (1987) under the supervision of Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr.  He has taught at the National University of Malaysia (1970 - 1977) and the University of Malaya (1977 - 2000).  He became Professor(1992) as Chair of Philosophy of Science at the Faculty of Science, University of Malaya.

He served as the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and Research) at the University of Malaya (1995–2000); Professor at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC)—International Islamic University Malaysia (2005–2008); holder of the ‘Malaysia Chair of Islam in Southeast Asia’ at Georgetown University (2000–2005); and was a Fullbright Visiting Scholar at Harvard University (1992). Professor Bakar founded the Center for Civilisational Dialogue in 1996 at the University of Malaya. He was awarded a Datukship by the Sultan of Pahang in 1994, and a Datukship by the Malaysian King in 2000.

He has served as advisor and consultant to a variety of international academic and professional organisations and institutions, including UNESCO and The Qatar Foundation. He is a member of the C-100 (Council of 100 Leaders) of The West-Islamic World Initiative for Dialogue established by the World Economic Forum based in Davos, Switzerland. He is the principal founder of the Malaysian Islamic Academy of Science established in 1977, and was its first Secretary-General (1977–1981) and its President (1987–1992). In 2001 he was appointed a member of the Religion Working Group on Genetically Modified Food at University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Bioethics.

He has published 15 books and over 250 articles on Islamic thought and civilisation, particularly on Islamic philosophy and science, as well as on contemporary Islam, and inter-religious and inter-civilisational dialogue. His best known works are Tawhid and Science (1991) (published in United Kingdom under the title The History and Philosopy of Islamic Science (1989)), Classification of Knowledge in Islam (1992), Critique of Evolutionary Theory, ed. (1987), and Islam and Civilizational Dialogue (1997). His Tawhid and Science has been translated into a number of Muslim languages including Persian, Turkish, Indonesian, and Albanian; while several other writings are translated into Spanish, Chinese, Urdu, Arabic, and Bosnian.

Emeritus Professor Bakar has made major contributions to the popularisation of Islamic science, global discourses on religion and science, and to the advancement of cross-cultural studies in history and philosophy of science. He is particularly interested in exploring the encounter of religion and science on such issues as cosmic design, meaning of intelligence both terrestrial and extra-terrestrial, cognitive psychology, evolution, quantum physics and consciousness, bioethics, and genetics.