Bipolar Refugee

Peter Wiesner was born in South Croydon, England, spent his childhood in both East and West Berlin, and immigrated to the US in 1954, settling in Santa Monica, California. In 1967, he received a degree in History from the University of California at Berkeley and earned a master's in communication from the University of Pennsylvania. After earning a doctorate in education from Rutgers University, with a focus on distance education and instructional design, he worked for several educational institutions from 1974 to 1984, and then spent five years at Rutgers University as a television producer. From 1989 to 2013, he was an educator at IEEE, an international professional association for electrical and computer engineers, where he directed publications and educational programs for member outreach and continuing education, including software, educational standards, courseware and video programs for engineers and the general public. His lifetime interest in films led him to produce numerous television documentaries on social, technological as well as environmental issues pertaining to green engineering and sustainability on a global scale. After retirement, he wrote his debut novel, Xtremus (Montag Press, 2015), a dystopian sci-fi satire about the demise of high technology resulting from technological overreach, and subsequently focused on writing about his mother's struggles as a Holocaust refugee and other topics related to the Holocaust. In addition to his lifetime pursuits in literature and the visual arts, he is involved in educational activities and outreach that promote racial tolerance and social equity. Since 1980, he and his wife, Linda, have lived in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. They have two married sons and five grandchildren.