High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Robert A. Blust is a prominent linguist in several areas, including historical linguistics, lexicography and ethnology. He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and raised in California. He received a B.A. in anthropology, and a PhD in linguistics in 1974 from the University of Hawai i at M noa. He is a professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Hawai i at M noa, and served as the department chair from 2005 to 2008. He currently serves as the review editor for the journal Oceanic Linguistics. Blust is best known for his work on Austronesian languages, including a large Austronesian comparative dictionary (Blust 1995c) and a Thao-English dictionary (Blust 2003b). Blust has done fieldwork on 97 Austronesian languages spoken in locations such as Sarawak, Papua New Guinea, and Taiwan the latter encompassing Formosan languages such as Thao, Kavalan, Pazeh, Amis, Paiwan and Saisiyat. He also has an abiding interest in both linguistic and cultural aspects of rainbows and dragons.