Dr. Robert Thompson trained as a composer of instrumental and electroacoustic music earning the B.Mus. degree from the University of Oregon and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of California at San Diego.  His primary teachers have included F. Richard Moore, Bernard Rands, Roger Reynolds and Joji Yuasa. He has created work in a wide variety of forms ranging from chamber and orchestral music to works for the virtuoso soloist, computer music and video and performance art.  He is the recipient of  many prizes and distinctions for his music including the First Prize in the 2001 Pierre Schaeffer Competition (Italy) and awards in the XVI Concorso Internazionale "Luigi Russolo" (Italy),  Irino Prize Foundation Competition for Chamber Music (Japan),  and Concours International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges(France), among others.  He was a Research Assistant of the Center for Music Experiment (CME) Computer Audio Research Lab (CARL) throughout the 1980’s, assisting significant composers in the realization of advanced computer music works.  In 1991, he was named a Fulbright Research Scholar and was Composer in Residence at the Danish Institute of Electroacoustic Music (DIEM) where he collaborated on fundamental research and composed the long-form computer music work – The Strong Eye.  Over the past decade, he has become increasingly well known internationally for his instrumental and computer music works and also for his many recordings which have been broadcast worldwide.  His music is published on recordings by EMF-Media, Neuma, Drimala, Capstone, Hypnos, Oasis/Mirage, Groove, Lens, Space for Music, Zero Music and Aucourant record labels, among others.

While composing and recording takes up most of his creative time, he is also involved in various tangent activities. He is active as a composer for feature films and as a mastering engineer, creating master recordings for labels such as Funtone and CRI (Composers Recordings Inc.).  On the technical side, he has collaborated with MicroTechnology Unlimited, and recently assisted them in the development of  DNOISE  - a  real-time digital audio noise reduction software application.  He participates in a similar way with the Composers Desktop Project and is serving as project director and editor for an up-coming book on computer music synthesis techniques featuring the CDP software suite.  He is a contributing author for two books, Computer Music Techniques for the Electronic Musician  and  Software Synthesis, Sound Design and Programming, both by Dr. Eduardo Reck Miranda and published by Focal Press in 1998 and 2002 respectively.  He is currently preparing a book on musical signal processing and computer music composition for A-R Editions.