Edward Castronova obtained a bachelor of science degree in international affairs from Georgetown University in Washington D.C. in 1985 and a doctorate in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1991. While pursuing his PhD, he spent many months studying German post war reconstruction and social policy at research institutes in Mannheim, Frankfurt and Berlin. From 1991 to 2004, he held university professorships in public policy, political science and economics, while his research focus shifted from social policy, to social norms, to theories of society as an evolving game. In 2001, Castronova took up the study of online social games, advancing an argument that these represent a newly evolved economic and social frontier. The resulting working paper, "Virtual Worlds," has had over 25,000 downloads, ranking 3rd in all subjects and 1st in economics at SSRN, the web's primary source for academic papers in law, finance, management, and economics. In 2003, he co-founded the academic blog Terra Nova, and in Fall 2004 he was invited to focus exclusively on online societies as an associate professor of telecommunications at Indiana University, Bloomington. Castronova is on the editorial board of the academic journal Game Studies and consults regularly with software companies on design issues. He also consults with business, government and non-profits on the long-run economic, political, and social implications of virtual worlds, and is currently preparing a book on the topic for the University of Chicago Press.