Pedro J. Aphalo is a PhD graduate from the University of Edinburgh, and is currently a lecturer at the University of Helsinki. A plant biologist and agriculture scientist with a passion for data, electronics, computers, and photography, in addition to plants, Dr. Aphalo has been a user of R for 25 years. He first organized an R course for MSc students 18 years ago, and is the author of 13 R packages currently in CRAN.