March 9, 2026
Bonnie Fleming has joined UChicago as professor of physics, effective March 10. Previously, Fleming served as Fermilab’s Deputy Director for Science and Technology and Chief Research Officer and a part-time University of Chicago faculty member with appointments in the Physics Department and the Enrico Fermi Institute.
Fleming’s expertise is in accelerator-based neutrino physics for the study of neutrino oscillations, neutrino properties, and physics beyond the Standard Model. She is a pioneer of precision neutrino detection technology using liquid noble gases, specifically Liquid Argon Time Projection Chambers. Her research currently focuses on the short and long baseline neutrino programs at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.
She began her career at Fermilab as a graduate student from Columbia University, where she received her PhD, working on the NuTeV (Neutrinos at the Tevatron) experiment and then as a Lederman Fellow at Fermilab working on MiniBooNE. From 2004 to 2021, Fleming was on faculty in the physics department at Yale University.
As a user at Fermilab, she served as the founding spokesperson for the ArgoNeuT (Argon Neutrino Teststand) experiment and for the MicroBooNE experiment. She has been a leading collaborator on the Short-Baseline Near Detector (SBND) and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE).
In 2024, Fleming was elected to the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.
In the Q&A below, we interviewed our newest full-time physics professor.
How did you become interested in your field?
In high school and college, I was always most interested in and most challenged by physics. My interest in getting a PhD in physics grew from being a beam operator, running the particle accelerator complex at Brookhaven National Lab in the three years following my undergraduate career. There I realized if I wanted to do what my bosses did, I needed a PhD, so I went to graduate school.
What’s your favorite class to teach?
I love teaching and have so many favorite classes. One class I taught for many years at Yale was “Science and Public Policy,” which challenged me to teach outside of the normal science realm and engaged students who may go off to guide the science policy for our nation in years to come. So important!
What’s a recent scientific or mathematical breakthrough you’re obsessed with?
Well, it’s a common comment but the huge growth in AI is fascinating and seems to be very impactful.
What do you want to do when you retire?
I’m not sure I want to retire! When I do, I love to garden. There is so much to learn in the garden, and it’s such a miracle to watch things grow.
How do you spend your time outside of work?
When I have time, I love to travel to far flung places with my family—my husband and our three kids, now 19, 17, and 15.