Dr. Robert W. Chase holds B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in petroleum and natural gas engineering from Penn State and is a retired registered professional engineer in Ohio. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), the Ohio Society of Professional Engineers (OSPE), the Ohio Oil and Gas Association (OOGA), and the Southeast Ohio Oil and Gas Association (SOOGA).
He served as professor and chair of the Department of Petroleum Engineering and Geology at Marietta College from1978 to 2015. In 2026 he agreed to return as department chair in an interim role.
Prior to coming to Marietta, he served as an assistant professor of petroleum engineering at West Virginia University. He worked previously for Halliburton Services, Gulf Research and Development Company, and the Department of Energy and has consulted for numerous oil and gas companies.
Chase served as SPE’s representative on the Engineering Accreditation Commission of ABET, on the Board of Directors of Settlers Bank in Marietta, Ohio and on the Board of Directors of Producers’ Service Corporation in Zanesville, Ohio. He served on the Board of Directors of SPE from 1990 to 1994. He was appointed by Governor Ted Strickland to serve a five-year term on the Ohio Oil and Gas Commission in 2008.