He initially studied medicine but moved to the natural sciences and worked with the oceanographers Paul Marais de Beauchamp and Louis Joubin but became very interested in Morocco.
Bourcart's 1922 doctoral thesis made use of data collected during his Albanian posting, supported by his superior during the war, Marshal Franchet d'Espere, dealt with the geography of Albania but his work included material on the Albanian people and their language, and he was known for his discursive storytelling.
He returned to Paris in 1933, and from 1936 he taught at Paris-Sorbonne University, becoming a full professor in 1950 and conducted studies on the seabed and ocean sediment.
One his students was Claude Francis-Boeuf, but his career was stopped by an accident in Ethiopia in 1952.
[2] He proposed continental flexture to explain the topography of the North African coast and submarine valleys.