William C. LaCourse, known locally as “Doc”, is currently Glass Research Professor and Director of the Paul Vickers Gardner Glass Center in the NY State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in Alfred, NY.

He received a B.S. in Engineering Science (1966) and a M.S. in Materials Engineering (1967) from SUNY, Stony Brook, and his Ph.D. in Materials Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1970) where he studied under Prof. J. Douglas Mackenzie, one of the first L. David Pye Lifetime Achievement Award recipients in 2019.

After a Post-Doctoral Research position in the Optical Materials Division of the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C., LaCourse joined Harrie Stevens and Dave Pye in the Glass Engineering Dept. at the NYS College of Ceramics, Alfred University. (1970) During his tenure at Alfred he has served as Kruson Distinguished Professor of Glass Science, Asst. Director and Director of the NSF-University-Industry Center for Glass Research, and Chair of the Biomedical Materials Engineering Dept. founded by a successful $1,000,000 grant application to the Whitiker Foundation with Co-PI, Dr. Alexis Clare.  Dr. LaCourse also served for 3.5 years as Interim SUNY Unit Head in the NYS College of Ceramics.   During that time Dr. LaCourse also authored or co-authored more than 100 publications, was inventor or co-inventor on 12 patents in bio-glass, amorphous metals, and chemical strengthening, and generated more than $2,500,000 in external funding

He also found time to interact with Industry, serving on the BOD of Ceradyne, Inc. and was visiting scientist at St. Gobain Recherche, Paris.  He was also a co-founder of Saxon Glass Technologies with the current owner and Glass Guru, Dr. Arun Varshneya.    His other Alfred University “jobs” included being: “Voice of the Saxons”, announcing Football and Basketball games for over 40 years:  Playing 5^th trumpet in the AU Jazz Ensemble and the AU Pep Band:  Asst. Women’s Basketball Coach and recruiter of tall women engineering students.

LaCourse has received several awards from Alfred University and the State University of New York including the Kruson Award for Outstanding Service to Alfred University, Alfred University McMahon Teaching Award, Alfred University Outstanding Teacher Award, The State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Teaching and the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Research. He was made an Honorary Alfred Alumnus in 1991.

LaCourse has been a member The American Ceramic Society since 1970 (GOMD) He is a Fellow of the Society and received the GOMD 2007 George W. Morey Award for Research.

Professor LaCourse retired from classroom teaching in 2021 but is still active in advising graduate and undergraduate thesis research.  He currently serves as Director of the Paul Vickers Gardner Glass Center, which is preparing for a Grand Reopening during the International Year of Glass.  He maintains his self-appointed position as Director of Entropy.  He is currently co-PI on 3 research projects and carries out his own laboratory studies on “Novel and Accelerated Chemical Strengthening Processes”, “Strengthening Glass by Abrasion”, and “Making Prince Rupert’s Drops Relevant”.