Robert Moog

Robert Moog was a pioneer in electronic music, the inventor of synthesizers that changed the course of popular music. While a graduate student in engineering in New York, Robert Moog wrote a magazine article introducing do-it-yourself kits to build the electronic musical instrument known as the Theremin. In 1954 he founded a company that sold Theremin kits, and he began to dabble in electronic circuitry to create and modulate electronic sounds. The result was the Moog synthesizer. In 1968 Wendy Carlos (then Walter Carlos) released the Grammy-winning album Switched-on Bach, played entirely on a Moog. The synthesizer quickly became a significant instrument for pop musicians, played by groups like The Monkees and The Beatles (who used it on Abbey Road) and contributing to the amped-up sound of the disco era. Moog continued to manufacture and sell electronic musical instruments until his death in 2005.

Extra credit: Moog rhymes with "rogue."... Moog held a PhD in engineering physics from Cornell University... He was the subject of a 2004 documentary, Moog.