Marko Suvajdzic is a diverse thinker with 25+ years of achievement in academia and the creative digital research and production space. He is an Associate Director of Digital Worlds Institute, an Associate Professor in Digital Arts and Sciences, a University Term Professor, an Entrepreneur in Residence at the UF Warrington College of Business, and the founder of Blockchain Research Lab at the University of Florida.

Suvajdzic holds two terminal degrees: an MFA in Photography (2001), and a Ph.D. in Theory of Arts and Media (2016). He also holds a B.S. in Computer Information Systems (1996). This combination of technical, artistic, and theoretical academic degrees has supported all aspects of his research and teaching in digital arts and sciences at the University of Florida, Digital Worlds Institute.

Suvajdzic joined Digital Worlds Institute in 2013, where he spearheaded the creation of a new undergraduate degree – Bachelor of Arts in Digital Arts and Sciences. To date, the new degree has grown from the initial cohort of ~20 students to welcoming over 200 students in the most recent academic year. Prior to Digital Worlds, he was the founder of the school for Computer Arts and Design at the Academy of Art College in Belgrade. There, Suvajdzic served as department chair of the school’s foundation until his move to the University of Florida.

His research focuses on the positive impact that emerging digital technologies have on humanity and our efforts to improve as human beings. More specifically his research focuses on the role of digital arts in healthcare and in education, and he has conducted pioneering research and teaching in the area of blockchain technology and its relationship to digital arts and media. Suvajdzic is the founder of the Blockchain Research Lab at UF, and the author of the first Blockchain course at the University of Florida. He has been a faculty mentor to two student clubs on campus, organized and hosted two international conferences at UF, served as Scholar in Residence at the College of Medicine, and served as Entrepreneur in Residence at the UF Warrington College of Business. To date, Suvajdzic’s research efforts at the University of Florida have been awarded $9+ million dollars in external grant awards.

His industry experience includes a range of digital startups and educational projects from artificial Intelligence-intensive video game titles such as Dogz & Catz: Your Virtual Petz (PF. Magic/Mattel), to co-founding five of his own startups in digital media. Suvajdzic is a serial entrepreneur and veteran of 6 startups in total, ranging from 1 to 4 years each. He has exhibited his artworks at the National Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade, Serbia. His documentary film “Life and Death on The River Ganges” has won an international film festival. His digital interactive experiences have been featured in video games that won multiple awards and consistently ranked on the various gaming industry’s top-10 lists.

Suvajdzic was a keynote speaker at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the most prestigious professional conference in the field of video games. His research work has been featured at Talks at Google, and at TEDx Salon. He was a keynote speaker through a special invitation from the Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences. His international reputation has been established through lectures and keynote talks at conferences in the USA, UK, Australia, China, India, Japan, Turkey, Thailand, Serbia, UAE, and Norway.