After working for the United States Bureau of Reclamation on the Boulder Dam design, he studied at UC Berkeley for his doctorate in physics.

[4] During World War II, Cornog designed magnetic equipment for ships and went to work on the Manhattan Project, successively at UC Berkeley, Princeton University and in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

He worked on missile systems for several Southern California companies, including Northrop, Space Technology Laboratories and Ramo-Wooldridge Corporation, which became TRW.

[5]: 244–257  Science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein, a friend, dedicated his 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land to Cornog.

Donald Kingsbury dedicated his 1986 novel The Moon Goddess and the Son to several people including "Robert Cornog for discussing the economics of the leoport."