Robert A. Blanchette is a professor in the Department of Plant Pathology at the University of Minnesota. He received a PhD in plant pathology from Washington State University. He teaches classes on forest and shade tree diseases and his major research interests lie in the areas of forest pathology and wood microbiology, with a focus on tree defense mechanisms, deterioration processes of wood, biotechnological uses of forest fungi, biological control of forest pathogens, ethnomycology and the conservation of archaeological wood and wood of historic value.