Chris Rupar is a Joplin native, and both of his parents were educators in the Joplin school district.  He attended Missouri Southern State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry.  After a few years working in industry, he went to the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville for his PhD.  His primary area of research in graduate school was the electron transfer reactions of biomolecules.  He previously taught Chemistry at Missouri Southern State University before joining the Thomas Jefferson faculty in 2018.