He worked at Baghdad University as a lecturer before becoming a professor at the
University of Illinois. At
Harvard University, he served as the Timken Professor of Science and the Mallinckodt Professor of Biology. Bazzaz specialized in the study of plant community succession. He was the author of six books and over 200 scientific papers, including an important scholarly paper in 1990 on
Carbon dioxide effects. He was ranked in the top ten of the "Most Cited Scientists in Environment/Ecology, 1992–2002". He was elected a Fellow of several organizations:
Clare Hall of Cambridge University, the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. His awards include a
Guggenheim Fellowship, the
Humboldt Prize, the
Nevada Medal, the King Faisal Prize for Biology, a
Leverhulme Professorship, and the UIUC LAS Alumni Achievement Award. He was a founding member of the
Iraqi National Academy of Science in 2003, and was an advisory board member of
Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF); the ASTF's Fakhri Bazzaz Award was established in his honor. ==Personal life==