Athar received his MSc Physics degree in 2000 and MPhil (Solid State Physics) degree in 2002 from University of the Punjab, Lahore-Pakistan. He obtained PhD degree in Materials Physics from University of Sheffield, UK. Before joining Department of Physics as Lecturer in 2004, he served in Centre for Solid State Physics (CSSP) as a Research Associate / Lecturer for a year (2003-2004). Athar also served as Scientific Officer in Pakistan Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology (PINSTECH), Nilore-Islamabad and as Lecturer in Higher Education Department, Government of Punjab. He joined Department of Physics as a Lecturer in 2004 and as an Assistant Professor in 2011. He has taught various courses (Solid State Physics, Modern Physics, Experimental techniques in physics and laboratory courses) to undergraduate (BS-4 year), postgraduate (MSc) and research (MPhil/PhD) students. He has over 18 years of teaching and research experience in his field. His research activities are focused on designing and study of the functional materials, especially fabrication and characterization of metallic, ceramic and semiconductor thin films, magnetic nanostructures, materials modeling and simulation. He has supervised a number of MPhil and MSc students.
In 2020, he is appointed as Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics, University of the Punjab, Lahore-Pakistan. In Department of Physics, he has established thin film fabrication laboratory to work in the area of metallic, magnetic and semiconductor thin films for magneto-optical and optoelectronic devices. He has participated in national and international conferences/workshops. His research work has been published in peer-reviewed international scientific journals published by Elsevier, American Institute Physics (AIP) and Springer. He has published more than forty research papers which have accumulative impact factor over 100 and total number of citations exceeding 700 according to Thomas Routers Journal Citation Report 2019-2020.