We present recent developments on heat kernel asymptotics and analytic torsion on non-degenerate CR manifolds. While heat kernel methods play a central role in connecting analysis, geometry, and topology in the elliptic setting, the study of the Kohn Laplacian on CR manifolds introduces significant challenges due to its non-ellipticity. In this talk, we explain how we establish the small-time behavior of the associated heat kernel of the Kohn Laplacian. As an application, we introduce analytic torsion in the CR setting and discuss its asymptotic behavior, particularly in the presence of high tensor powers of line bundles. The talk is based on joint work with Chin-Yu Hsiao and Rung-Tzung Huang.