Professor Dr Tharek is an expert in the field of telecommunication engineering and wireless technology. He has produced more than 300 papers related to wireless communication in national and international journal and conferences (Scopus H-index=18, number of citations=1565), two patents granted, six IP filing and two trademarks. He managed to secure funding from agencies like Nippon Telephony Telegraphy (NTT) Japan, Ericsson, Alcatel/ Maxis, and Celcom to fund his research project.

In 2011, Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) collaborated with his team to establish research and training facilities that includes theory and hands-on training of (LTE-Long Term Evolution) technology. Under his leadership, the Wireless Communication Centre (WCC), UTM had been awarded the Higher Institutional Centre of Excellence (HICoE) status to focus on 5G wireless communication research. He succeeded to attract two international telecommunication giants, Ericsson and Huawei, to collaborate in 5G research.

He has been appointed to hold numerous professional positions and sits in various committees nationally and internationally. He was the Chairman of the IMT Working Group 5G, Chairman of the Working Group on 3rd Generation Mobile Communication, MCMC, Malaysian delegate at the task group 8/1, International Telecommunication Union – Radio (ITU-R) on IMT-2000 Standardization and the Board of Director of Astronautic Technology Sdn Bhd (ATSB).

He has won numerous local and international awards. For his illustrious long serving record of accomplishment as an academic and researcher in the field of telecommunications, he has been conferred with Excellence Award, UTM 1992 and 2003. His GPS ad GSM tracking systems received special and gold medal awards at British Invention Show in 2005. He is a recipient of the 2016 Top Research Scientists Malaysia Award