He has authored or edited a dozen books, and has published numerous papers on geology and tectonics of the North-West Himalayas.

In 1977 he was awarded a PhD in geology, writing his thesis on The mineralogy, geochemistry and petrology of Swat Kohistan, N.W.

He paid visits to many institutions and delivered talks on the geology of the North-West Himalayas in Europe, the US, and Australia.

In 1980, he joined the newly founded government-based organisation, the National Centre of Excellence in Geology, where he later served as its director.

[3] Jan remained actively engaged in studying various aspects of the geology of the northeast Himalayas and Karakoram, and published a large number of papers both nationally and internationally.