Pete Markiewicz

Dr. Pete Markiewicz was raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and went to school at Loyola University, New Orleans, and the University of Chicago. Graduating with a "Biophysics and Theoretical Biology" degree (the department later changed its name to "Molecular and Cellular Biology", he worked on infectious disease vaccines at USAMRIID in the late 1980s, and subsequently worked on protein evolution at UCLA in Los Angeles under Dr. Jeffry Miller.

In late 1993, Pete left UCLA to co-found Indiespace (formerly Kaleidospace) - the first web-based arts and entertainment company which exists today at http://www.indiespace.com. Throughout the 1990s Pete was part of design and programming, "dotcom" style, and Indiespace was the 1990s MySpace for thousands of musicians, visual artists, and independent filmmakers. Based on his experience, he also co-wrote three books on the Internet with Jeannie Novak, "Creating Internet Entertainment", "Internet World Guide to Maintaining and Updating Dynamic Websites", and "Webdeveloper.com Guide to Producing Live Webcasts".

After 2001 Indiespace changed into a consultancy. Pete began to specialize in the impact of new media (specifically web/interactive) on society. At this time he began work with William Strauss and Neil Howe on the Millennial Generation, and was one of the authors of their landmark book, "Millennials and Pop Culture". In the book, Pete helped predict the future of entertainment as Millennials (born 1982-2004) began replacing Generation X as the creators and consumers of pop culture (see video at http://www.youtube.com/v/qVrYEcGeHWs&hl=en).

In 2005, Pete was Team Leader for Team Robomonster, a robotic, self-driving rock crawler entered in the DARPA 2005 Grand Challenge (see video at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2627249071104327787).

In recent years, Pete has developed seminars on the Millennial Generation, pop culture, and virtual worlds for USC's CTM Programs at the Marshall School of Business and taught Interactive and Web Design at the Art Institute of California, Los Angeles. He has developed seminars and presentations highlighting the Millennial generation's use of the web, as well as virtual worlds like Second Life.

Most recently, he has been investigating sustainability issues for the Internet and Web under the title of "Sustainable Web Design".