Bill Cleary joined the Smith School in 2023 and as a professor of practice offering students real-world insights into industry and exposure to both the technical and business challenges they will encounter.
Cleary earned his chemical engineering B.S. from Cornell and an M.S. from George Washington University. He has 38 years of experience in industry, government and consulting, and is currently a business development director at Corning Incorporated, where he has led technical and commercial groups for the past 28 years. Professor emeritus Al Center first invited Cleary to do a guest lecture in 2004, and his annual visits to the unit operations, plant design and career perspectives courses were great preparation for the professor of practice role.
“I enjoy interacting with students through the Socratic method to take them beyond thinking about their next exam to building skills for a successful career. Alex Woltornist, Brian Bauer and I come from different industrial backgrounds, so together we can provide students with an invaluable breadth of practical examples to support the content of our courses,” Cleary said.