Bonnie T. Fleming
Scientist Bonnie Fleming in the atrium of Fermilab's Wilson Hall.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materColumbia University, Barnard College
Known forExperimental Physics, Neutrino Physics
Scientific career
FieldsPhysics
InstitutionsYale University
Fermilab
University of Chicago

Bonnie T. Fleming is an experimental particle physicist who has held leadership roles in several physics experiments and at Fermilab. Since 2022, she has been Fermilab's chief research officer and deputy director for science and technology. She has also served on the faculty of Yale University and the University of Chicago. Fleming is an expert in neutrino physics and liquid argon time projection chamber detector technology.

Education

Fleming received her bachelor's degree in physics from Barnard College in 1993. After working at Brookhaven National Laboratory as a particle beam operator from 1993 until 1996, she attended Columbia University.[1][2] While she was a graduate student, she worked on Fermilab's NuTeV experiment.[3] She received her PhD in physics from Columbia University in 2002.[2]

Career

After completing her PhD, Fleming held a postdoctoral position as a Lederman Fellow working on the MiniBooNE neutrino oscillation experiment at Fermilab from 2002 to 2004.[3][4][2] In 2004, she joined the faculty of Yale University's department of physics,[2] and she was the second woman to gain tenure in that department.[5]

Fleming continued to work on experiments at Fermilab during her time at Yale. She was a member of the LArIAT (Liquid Argon TPC In A Test beam) collaboration;[2] co-spokesperson on the FINeSSE neutrino scattering experiment;[6] founding spokesperson for the ArgoNeuT Argon Neutrino Test project, which she started in 2006 with support from a National Science Foundation CAREER grant;[1] and founding spokesperson for the MicroBooNE neutrino experiment.[7] Under Fleming's leadership as co-spokesperson, MicroBooNE investigated the excess of electron neutrinos that had been observed by the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector at Los Alamos National Laboratory and by the MiniBooNE experiment at Fermilab, an anomaly which hinted at the possibility of the existence of a fourth type of neutrino. MicroBooNE announced in 2021 that it did not find evidence of these hypothesized sterile neutrinos.[8][9] Fleming also collaborates on Fermilab's Short-Baseline Near Detector, and DUNE, the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. Fleming played a key role in developing the liquid argon time projection chambers used as detectors for many of these experiments.[7] She helped establish Fermilab's Neutrino Physics Center, and from 2016 to 2018 she served as the lab's deputy chief research officer.[3]

Fleming has also served on high-profile particle physics community panels, including the 2014 Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5) convened by the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel (HEPAP).[10]

In addition to her research and leadership roles, Fleming has also been active in science education and outreach and in supporting women scientists. In 2007, she founded Girls’ Science Investigations, a program that encourages middle school girls in New Haven, Connecticut to cultivate their interest, confidence, and skills in science.[11][12] In 2012, Fleming and her colleague Sarah Demers won a Yale University Seton Elm-Ivy Award for their work with Girls’ Science Investigations.[13] Under Fleming's guidance, Yale students organized a Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics at Yale.[5] Fleming also frequently does public outreach work related to her research, and she has been quoted or featured in publications such as The New York Times[5] and The New Yorker,[14] television programs such as Wired Science[15] and community television,[16] and radio programs such as Here and Now.[17]

In September 2022, Fleming was named Fermilab's chief research officer and deputy director for science and technology. At the same time, she was also appointed professor in the department of physics and the Enrico Fermi Institute at the University of Chicago.[12][3]

Honors and awards

References

  1. 1 2 Riesselmann, Kurt (August 1, 2008). "Bonnie and the ArgoNeuTs". Symmetry Magazine. Retrieved 2023-01-31.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Bonnie T. Fleming". inspirehep.net. Retrieved 2023-01-31.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Groundbreaking particle physicist named Fermilab chief research officer and deputy director, UChicago professor". Physical Sciences - University of Chicago. September 7, 2022. Retrieved 2023-01-31.
  4. ↑ "Lederman Fellow - Past Fellows". Fermilab | For Physicists & Engineers | Fellowships. December 3, 2021. Retrieved 2023-01-31.
  5. 1 2 3 Pollack, Eileen (2013-10-03). "Why Are There Still So Few Women in Science?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-01-31.
  6. ↑ "Faculty News — Recent Appointments" (PDF). Yale Department of Physics Newsletter. Fall 2005. p. 5. Retrieved 2023-01-31.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Bonnie Fleming". 1400 Degrees. Retrieved 2023-01-31.
  8. ↑ Browne, Ed (2021-10-28). "Ghost Particle Explained As Sterile Neutrino Eludes Physicists". Newsweek. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  9. ↑ Johnston, Hamish (2021-10-28). "Sterile neutrinos ruled out by MicroBooNE, but mysterious excess remains unexplained". Physics World. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  10. ↑ Building for Discovery: Strategic Plan for U.S. Particle Physics in the Global Context. Report of the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5) (PDF). U.S. Department of Energy, NSF Office of Science. May 2014.
  11. ↑ Cohen, Daniella (2016-09-29). "Science program extends outreach to young women". Yale Daily News. Retrieved 2023-01-31.
  12. 1 2 "Bonnie Fleming Has Been Named Chief Research Officer at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory". Women In Academia Report. 2022-10-07. Retrieved 2023-04-13.
  13. ↑ "New Haven and Yale celebrate activists who strengthen town-gown ties". YaleNews. 2012-04-10. Retrieved 2023-01-31.
  14. ↑ Cole, K. C. (June 2, 2003). "Fun with Physics". The New Yorker. pp. 48–57. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  15. ↑ "Bowling for Neutrinos". Symmetry Magazine. July 28, 2009. Retrieved March 7, 2023.
  16. ↑ "Women in Science". Naperville Community Television NCTV17. 15 March 2010. Retrieved 2023-04-19.
  17. ↑ Hobson, Jeremy; Bentley, Chris (March 19, 2019). "'Why Anything?': Fermilab Scientists Ask The Universe's Biggest Question In Study Of A Tiny Particle". www.wbur.org. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  18. ↑ "Kavli Frontiers of Science Alumni Directory". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2023-01-31.
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