The research focus of Prof. Nafees A. Khan is on the identification of strategies for developing abiotic stress tolerant crop plants through modulation of tolerance mechanism, and strengthening positive source-sink relationship under optimal and limited environmental conditions. The key observations and recommendations showed that the potential of adverse effects of abiotic stress factors (salinity, drought, heat and metals) could be reduced by  judicious synergism with signalling molecules for maximizing the use-efficiency of primary mineral nutrient elements and establishing a cross-talk. He found that the use of the signalling molecules enhances the use-efficiency of primary nutrient elements that results in the increased efficiency of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants. The overall effect was seen in the increased potential of photosynthetic machinery and abiotic stress tolerance with enhancement in the crop productivity under stressful environments.  These research findings have been reported in premier journals of Plant Sciences and Plant Physiology. Prof Khan has received recognition as UGC-Career Award, UGC-Mid Career Award, Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of Linnean Society of London, Fellow of the International Society for Development and Sustainability, Fellow of Indian Botanical Science and Fellow of Indian Society of Plant Physiology, Highly Cited Researcher 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023, and India Research Excellence Citation Award-2023 by Clarivate Analytics (Web of Science).