Polycrystalline transparent ceramics are emerging as a highly promising alternative to single-crystal and glass materials for potential utilization in a wide range of optics and photonics applications, most notably being ceramic lasers and scintillators. This talk will review the history development of the ceramic materials for laser applications, including some significant milestones and achievements, and will mainly emphasize some fundamental sciences and technologies in the research and development of laser ceramics. New processing technologies and novel laser ceramic materials will also be described to forecast future of ceramic laser materials.