Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Richards
Assistant Professor of Mathematical Sciences
Bio
Lt Col Richards is originally from Anacortes, Washington. Upon graduation from Pepperdine University, he taught high school math and physics before joining the Air Force as an Analytical Scientist in 2003. Lt Col Richards specializes in decision analysis and has worked with both the Department of Homeland Security and the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization in developing course-of-action selection models. Recent projects have included Regulatory Reform and Business Intelligence models for senior Pentagon Leadership using interactive online data visualizations.
Prior to his previous Pentagon assignment, Lt Col Richards worked with the Colorado School of Mines and the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) to modernize the way cadets and courses are scheduled at USAFA.
Education
2002, Bachelor of Science degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science, Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA.
2004, Air and Space Basic Course, Maxwell AFB, AL.
2009, Master of Science degree in Operations Research, Air Force Institute of Technology, Dayton, OH.
2010, Squadron Officer School, Maxwell AFB, AL.
2016, Air Command and Staff College by correspondence.
2017, Doctor of Philosophy in Operations Research with Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO.
Professional Experience
January 2004 – September 2006, Production Analyst, HQ Air Force Recruiting Service, Randolph AFB, TX.
September 2006 – July 2007, Chief, HQ Air Force Recruiting Service Analysis Section, Randolph AFB, TX.
July 2007 – April 2009, Masters Student, Air Force Institute of Technology, Wright Patterson AFB, OH.
April 2009 – May 2012, Operations Requirements Analyst, Office of Aerospace Studies, Kirtland AFB, NM. (Deployed, Operations Assessment Team, Al Udeid AB, Qatar)
May 2012 – January 2013, Instructor, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO.
January 2013 – August 2013, Assistant Course Director, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO.
August 2013 – August 2014, Course Director and Associate Professor, United States Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, CO.
August 2014 – August 2017, PhD Student, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO.
August 2017 – October 2018, June 2020, Chief, Secretary of the Air Force Initiatives and Programs Branch, Headquarters Air Force, Pentagon, Washington D.C.
(Deployed, NATO Plans and Operations, Camp Film City, Kosovo)
Honors & Awards
2005 Randolph Air Force Base Company Grade Officer of the Year
2012 United States Air Force Academy Outstanding New Instructor Award
2013 Colonel Tony M. Johnson Award for Teaching in Mathematics
Research and Scholarly Interests
Decision Analysis, Networks, Simulation
Publications
Gonzalez, G., Richards, C. and A. Newman. “Optimal Course Scheduling for United States Air Force Academy Cadets.” Interfaces, 2017.
Richards, C., Odom, C., Morton, D., & Newman, A. (2019). Minimum‐risk routing through a mapped minefield. Networks, 73(3), 358-376.
Richards, C., & Mehta, D. (2019). Navigating free‐floating minefields via time‐varying Voronoi graphs. Networks, 73(2), 254-274.