Robert Moog was born in 1934, in New York City. His academic degrees include a BS in Physics from Queens College (New York City), a BS in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University (New York City), and a PhD in Engineering Physics from Cornell University (Ithaca, New York).
In 1954, Moog founded the R. A. Moog Company as a part-time business to design and build electronic musical instruments. The company became a full-time business in 1964, the year it introduced a line of electronic music synthesis equipment. In 1971, the name of the company was changed to Moog Music, Inc, and in 1973 the company became a division of Norlin Music, Inc. Moog served as president of Moog Music until 1977.
The Moog family moved from New York State to western North Carolina in 1978. There he founded Big Briar, Inc. for the purpose of designing and building novel electronic music equipment, especially new types of performance control devices. At the present time, Big Briar's activities include building theremins, MIDI interfaces, and electronic musical instrument kits.
From 1984 to 1988, Moog was a full-time consultant and Vice President of New Product Research for Kurzweil Music Systems.
Moog's awards include honorary doctorates from Polytechnic University (New York City) and Lycoming College (Williamsport, Pennsylvania); the Silver Medal of The Audio Engineering Society; the Trustee's Award of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences; the Bilboard Magazine Trendsetter's Award; and the SEAMUS award from the Society of Electroacoustic Music in the United States. He has written and spoken widely on topics related to music technology, and has contributed major articles to the Encyclopedia Brittancia and the Encyclopedia of Applied Physics.
At the present time, Robert Moog lives and works in Asheville, North Carolina. He is president of Big Briar, Inc.