Dr. Graham Fleming is a distinguished chemist renowned for his pioneering contributions to ultrafast spectroscopy and its applications in biological systems. He currently serves as Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley where he has held appointments since 1997 and as a Senior Faculty Scientist in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Born in Barrow, England in 1949, he earned his Bachelor's degree from the University of Bristol in 1971 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of London in 1974 before completing post-doctoral fellowships at Caltech and the University of Melbourne. Prior to his appointment at Berkeley, Dr. Fleming established an influential research program at the University of Chicago where he served as Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Service Professor and chaired the Chemistry Department for three years during which he founded the Institute for Biophysical Dynamics.
Dr. Fleming's groundbreaking research has revolutionized our understanding of energy transfer processes in photosynthetic systems through the development and application of advanced multidimensional ultrafast spectroscopic methods. His laboratory made the seminal discovery that quantum electronic coherence persists in disordered biological environments at physiological temperatures, fundamentally changing the scientific understanding of photosynthetic energy transfer and triggering extensive research into quantum effects in biological systems worldwide. This work demonstrated that natural photosynthetic complexes exploit quantum mechanical principles to achieve remarkably efficient energy transfer, challenging previous assumptions about the role of quantum phenomena in biological processes. Dr. Fleming's research group has extended these investigations to explore quantum electronic properties of single-walled carbon nanotubes and organic photovoltaic systems, with the overarching goal of developing artificial photosynthetic devices that mimic nature's efficient solar energy harvesting mechanisms.
Beyond his direct research contributions, Dr. Fleming played a pivotal leadership role at UC Berkeley as Vice Chancellor for Research from 2009 to 2015, where he oversaw campus research policy and administration and fostered major scientific initiatives including the US$500 million Energy Biosciences Institute. His research group continues to develop new spectroscopic capabilities and theoretical analytical tools to achieve higher resolutions and gain deeper insights into complex molecular dynamics, particularly focusing on elucidating the quantum electronic properties of nanoscale systems. As one of the world's leading experts in ultrafast spectroscopy, Dr. Fleming has mentored numerous students and postdoctoral researchers who have gone on to establish independent research careers, significantly expanding the field's global capacity. His ongoing work aims to define the design principles underlying the quantum efficiency of natural photosynthetic systems to inform the development of robust and efficient artificial photosynthetic devices for sustainable energy applications.
