Dr Akhtar has received a number of competitive external research grants, with total funding in excess of 1.7 million dollars. She was a recipient of an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship. She is an active researcher and presents her work regularly at international and Australian conferences including the American Finance Association Conference. A number of her research papers received local and international prestigious awards. She also supervises Honours, Masters and PhD students. She has been awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence and also the "Top Supervisor" Award.