Courville previously served as section head of the Efficiency and Renewables Research Section in the Energy Division. He joined ORNL in 1980 and has served as a group leader and program manager for the Building Thermal Envelope Systems and Materials Program. In 1991 Courville was given the Federal Laboratory Consortium Award for excellence in technology transfer.
Before joining ORNL, Courville was a professor of physics and an administrator for 17 years at Farleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey. He also served two years on an Intergovernment Personnel Act assignment as a program manager at the DOE.
Courville received his bachelor's degree in physics from Montana State University, his master's in physics from the University of Pittsburgh and his doctorate in physics from Stevens Institute of Technology. He is a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers, the American Society for Testing and Materials, and the Green Buildings Council. He also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Thermal Insulation in Building Envelopes.
He lives in Oak Ridge with his wife, Marjorie. They have three grown children, George, Karen and Katheryn.
ORNL, one of DOE's multiprogram national research and development facilities, is managed by Martin Marietta Energy Systems, a Lockheed Martin company, which also manages the Oak Ridge K-25 Site and the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant.