Prof. Nafees A. Khan obtained his Ph.D. and D.Sc. at the Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, India, and is Professor of Plant Physiology in the department of botany of this university. Prof. Khan has over 200 research publications and has an H-index 76, earning an exceptional research impact. He is on the Thomson Reuters /Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers official list from 2019 to 2023. Prof Khan has received recognition as UGC-Career Award, UGC-Mid Career Award, Teaching Excellence Award, Research Excellence Citation Award-2023 (Clarivate Analytics), Plant Science and Agronomy in India Award for 2023 and 2024 by Research.com. He is Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, Fellow of Linnean Society of London, Fellow of Indian Botanical Science and Fellow of the Indian Society of Plant Physiology. He is a member of the editorial board of Plant Physiology & Biochemistry, Plants, STRESSES, Annals of Phytomedicine and guest editor of special issues in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry, PLANT GENE, Plant and Soil, Antioxidants, Agriculture, Plants, Journal of Plant Physiology and Frontiers in Plant Science, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Functional and Environmental Botany (2011-2013) and Editor of Indian Journal of Plant Physiology (2016).

His research work focuses on responses of growth and photosynthetic processes, and antioxidant system to abiotic stress factors, and identification of mechanisms for developing abiotic stress tolerant crop plants  through phytohormone signaling and its crosstalk with primary nutrient elements, nitrogen and sulfur. The key research 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 signaling molecules for maximizing the use-efficiency of primary mineral nutrient elements and establishing a cross-talk. The phytohormone signaling molecules enhances the use-efficiency of primary nutrient elements that results in the increased efficiency of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants to increase the 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.