Dr. Chase Rainwater is a Professor with the Department of Industrial Engineering (INEG) at the University of Arkansas, where he has been a faculty member since 2009. Currently serving as the Department Head, he is also a Co-Director of the Arkansas Security Research and Education Institute. He holds a Ph.D. in industrial and systems Engineering from the University of Florida and a bachelor’s in industrial engineering from the University of Arkansas. His research portfolio comprises numerous published journal articles, conference papers, and book chapters, supported by more than USD 20M in research funding from a variety of sources, including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and United States National Laboratories. His research interests span supply chain logistics, national security, large-scale algorithm design, machine learning and food safety. An active member of professional organizations such as IISE, INFORMS, and ASEE, Dr. Rainwater has received recognition for his teaching excellence, including the University of Arkansas Industrial Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2022. His commitment to education is evident in his supervision of numerous graduate and undergraduate theses, along with advising six Ph.D. dissertations.