Chase Rainwater, assistant professor of industrial engineering, has been selected as the John L. Imhoff Chair in Industrial Engineering for a two-year period beginning in January 2015. This title was established in 1983 to honor the memory of John L. Imhoff, founding head of the University of Arkansas department of industrial engineering.

"Dr. Rainwater is an accomplished scholar and a versatile and excellent teacher," said Ed Pohl, head of the Department of Industrial Engineering. "He has made numerous contributions to service internally within the department, college, and university, and externally through his engagement with his professional societies.  Most notable is his level of service to the High School STEM community through his involvement with the FIRST Robotics Competition." 

Rainwater joined the industrial engineering faculty at the University of Arkansas in August 2009. His contributions to industrial engineering research include 19 published journal and conference papers. Rainwater's work has been supported through more than $1 million in research funding from sources including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Arkansas Electric Cooperative Cooperation and ArcBest Corporation.

His research interests include supply chain optimization, large-scale algorithm design and healthcare planning. He has advised two doctoral dissertations along with multiple master's and undergraduate theses. His work has been honored with three best paper awards collectively from the Industrial Engineering Research Conference and the Reliability and Maintainability Symposium.

Rainwater is the faculty advisor to the University of Arkansas Chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. He was named the Outstanding Advisor for the IIE South Central Region 2013. He is also an active member in the Institute for Operations Research and Management Sciences. In the Northwest Arkansas community, Rainwater contributes frequently to STEM initiatives for K-12 students. He is a five-year mentor of the Springdale High School FRC robotics team and has participated in the organization of seven robotics events in Northwest Arkansas. Rainwater was awarded the University of Arkansas Industrial Engineering Outstanding Teaching Award in 2012 and 2014.