Prof. Dr. Zainab Begum was born on 3rd January, 1944 in Chattogram. She is the retired Joint Secretary in the ministry of LGRD and Co – operatives of the Govt. of Bangladesh. She joined the Govt. Education Service in 1966 as lecturer of Zoology at Chittagong College and gathered 35 years of experience in teaching and administration. She did her Ph.D from the University of Clermont- Ferrand, France in 1978 with a prior one year intensive course in French Language at CAVILAM, ViChowdhury, France and DEA degree in Protistology from the same university in the year 1975 and 76 respectively. In 1978 on returning from France she joined Department of Zoology, Chittagong College as Asst. Professor and served as the Head of the Department in the capacity of Associate Professor, Professor, and finally Selection Grade Professor. She was the Head of the Dept. for about 30 years till 1998.
She was selected by the Govt. of Bangladesh on deputation as the Joint Secretary, Ministry of LGRD and Co-operatives in 1998 to represent women empowerment in higher grade officials of the Govt. She is the President of Ghashful Paran Rahman School Management Committee. She introduced Qudrat-E-Khuda Gold Medal Award to authors, scientists who contributed in popular science written in Bangla Language.