Deputy Director Fleming to Step Down; Chu Calls Tenure ‘Vital’

When Berkeley Lab Director Steve Chu arrived at Berkeley Lab in 2004, he was a newcomer to the laboratory system and the Department of Energy. So when it came to choosing a chief deputy to help him get settled and learn the ropes, he called on internationally known biochemist Graham Fleming. Now, almost three years later, he has granted Fleming’s request for “a long overdue and well-earned sabbatical.”

 “Graham was willing to put aside some of his own research to help me get started,” Chu commented in making the announcement that Fleming would be stepping down as Deputy Director. “With his reputation as an innovative and well-respected scientist within DOE, his assistance was vital in my orientation to the Department of Energy and Office of Science.”

The Director also named Paul Alivisatos, Associate Lab Director for the Physical Sciences and Director of the Materials Sciences Division, as Acting Deputy Lab Director, effective Dec. 1. Fleming has agreed to stay until Dec. 31 to assist Alivisatos during the transition. A formal search committee for the permanent Deputy position will be named shortly.

“As an experienced administrator, Graham helped establish a new era in Lab-UC Berkeley campus relations by leading a number of Lab-campus working groups to increase collaborations between the two organizations,” Chu noted. “As an internationally prominent biochemist, he helped raise the scientific standard across the Lab, as evidenced in the quality of appointments, and in the breadth and scope of the many research proposals and new collaborations. As a result of his hard work, LBNL is a stronger laboratory, and well-positioned to compete for future DOE initiatives. In the years I have interacted with Graham, I have learned a great deal from him.”

While at the Lab, Fleming played a key role in formulating parts of the Helios solar energy project, particularly the biofuels components, which resulted in the DOE award to Berkeley Lab of one of its three BioEnergy Centers, the Joint Bioenergy Institute (JBEI).  He was also instrumental in developing the proposal that eventually became the Energy Biosciences Institute partnership with BP, in which the Lab is a collaborator, and he spearheaded the recently-completed Grand Challenges project for DOE’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences. He led the group developing the scientific and technical case for the Laboratory’s next-generation light source proposal. He also initiated and implemented a complete revision of the Lab’s hiring and promotion policies for scientists and engineers, and proposed and set up the Seaborg Fellows program.

During his time as Deputy Director, Fleming was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. In September, he was also awarded the Zewail Award in Ultrafast Science and Technology by the American Chemical Society.

He is a world leader in the field of time-resolved spectroscopy. His service as Co-Director of the Institute for Bioengineering, Biotechnology, and Quantitative Biomedicine (QB3), and as the faculty lead and advisor to the Chancellor on the Stanley Hall replacement building, were invaluable assets in advancing Laboratory partnerships with UC Berkeley, Chu added.

Fleming will retain his research positions at both UC Berkeley and in Berkeley Lab’s Physical Biosciences Division.