Her research interests include machine learning, image analysis, remote sensing, hyperspectral image analysis, sparsity promotion and pattern recognition. She has been actively involved in landmine, explosive object and trace explosives detection research using hyperspectral imagers in a variety of modalities. Zare has conducted research on the fusion of multiple sensor types including multispectral, synthetic aperture radar, ground-penetrating radar, LIDAR and hyperspectral imagery. She has participated in magnetic resonance spectroscopy and Raman imaging research for medical applications.