His music and research reflect his interests in the physicality and perception of sound, sonic environments, extended performance techniques, tuning systems, noise, gradual processes, and algorithmic composition. His scholarly publications have appeared on the University of Illinois Press and Bloomsbury Academic Press, and in The Oxford Handbook of Spectral Music, Contemporary Music Review, Music Theory Online, IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, Physical Review E, the Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, and elsewhere.
Rob teaches at the California Institute of the Arts where he is Associate Dean and Professor of Composition, Theory, History & Literature. He holds a PhD in Music Composition from the University of California, San Diego and a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Waterloo.