He has researched and taught at the Department of Botany, University of Delhi, for over 40 years. After an initial interest in bryophytes, an opportunity of post-doctoral research in the lab of Prof HE Street (University of Leicester, UK) was the turning point in his interest on cell physiology of higher plants. For furtherance of his research he was awarded Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship to work in the lab of Dr J Reinert (Freie University at Berlin) on pollen physiology and biotechnology and in the lab of Prof H Mohr (University of Freiburg) on physiology of phytochrome.
Dr Rashid's research topics have been protonema, protoplast, pollen and phytochrome. He has published over 80 research papers and a few reviews in international journals.