Bill Gleason is an Associate Professor at the University of Minnesota in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology. He's also a fellow at the U's Supercomputer Institute.

In addition, he's also part of the graduate faculty in Biomedical Engineering.

Gleason obtained his PhD in chemistry at the U in 1973. He also taught chemistry for six years at Carleton College as well as at what is now known as St. Catherine University.

He then spent nine years at 3M, where he started work on reflective materials for traffic signs in the Traffic Control Materials Laboratory.

In 1989 he returned to the U and has been there ever since except for research stints to Cambridge University (UK) and Brandeis University.

Experience in large and small higher educational institutions as well as in industry has given him a unique viewpoint from which to observe goings on at the university.