Dr. El Sharkawy is an Associate Professor of grape breeding and fruit crop production at CVSFR/FAMU. He has published more than 80 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. He served as a reviewer and acted as an Associate/Guest Editor in several international peer-reviewed journals. Over the years, he has used integrated molecular breeding technologies to improve the productivity and sustainability of diverse horticultural crops. He has successfully worked on different research topics such as tree architecture, root characteristics, rootstock/scion interactions, flowering behavior, fruit development, fruit quality traits, postharvest physiology and technology, secondary metabolite, plant growth regulators, and abiotic stress (drought and salinity) with a wide range of horticultural crops. His current research focuses on using recent OMICs technologies to characterize several traits in southern grapes related to fungal disease resistance, abiotic stress tolerance (drought, salt, and hypoxia), beneficial metabolome profile, floral terpenes and pollinators, berry aroma spectrum, and numerous fruit quality characteristics. He also studies the influence of epigenetics in re-programming grapevine phenomics, leading to changes in grapevine responses, growth behavior, and fruit quality characteristics. The target is to produce innovative superior cultivars with attractive value-added traits based on improved germplasm.