He is known for his considerable research works on Kazi Nazrul Islam, Jibanananda Das, Farrukh Ahmad, Syed Waliullah, Manik Bandyopadhyay, Bishnu De, Samar Sen, Roquiah Sakhawat Hossain, Abdul Ghani Hazari, Muhammad Wajed Ali, Prabodh Chandra Sen.[1][2] From 2002 to 2004, he held the position of Executive Director of Nazrul Institute.

[2] Syed was born on 3 August 1943 at Basirhat, on the Ichamati River, in the district of 24 Paraganas, in West Bengal of British India.

A less discussed but equally fearsome riot took place in 1950 that drove the family of Syed from West Bengal and to settle in Dhaka, the provincial capital of the-then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

His father Syed A. M. Badruzzdoza was a public official who served in many places of the then East Pakistan.

For a long time he was associated with the Shilpataru, a monthly literary magazine published from Dhaka by poet Abid Azad.

On 5 September 2010, he was having an afternoon sleep when he suffered a massive cardiac arrest and succumbed to death just before Iftaar.

On the following day he was buried at the Azimpur Graveyaed after three Salatul Janazas at Green Road Jam-e-Masjid, Bangla Academy and Dhaka University mosque.