Although a high-school drop out he was admitted to Beloit College, and at 17 he was invited to a collecting trip to Costa Rica.
[3] Moffett is a Research Associate in the Department of Entomology at the National Museum of Natural History in the Smithsonian Institution.
[4] Moffett is a past Yale University Poynter Fellow in journalism,[5] received a Bowdoin Prize from Harvard University,[6] the Lowell Thomas Medal from The Explorers Club in 2006,[7] a National Outdoor Book Award in 2010,[8] a PROSE (Professional and Scholarly Excellence) Award from the Association of American Publishers in 2010,[9] and awards for his photography from World Press Photo Foundation[10] and Pictures of the Year International.
[11][12] In 2009, the exhibition Farmers Warriors, Builders: the Hidden Life on Ants opened at the National Museum of Natural History in the Smithsonian Institution, containing 40 of Moffett’s images.
[15] Moffett has appeared multiple times on the Late Night with Conan O'Brien and The Colbert Report.