text: Fleming was born 3 December 1949 in Barrow (now Barrow-in-Furness), England, and received his B.S. degree with honors in chemistry from the University of Bristol in 1971. He subsequently received his Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University College London and the Royal Institution in 1974. Fleming then held postdoctoral researcher appointments at three institutions: California Institute of Technology (1974–1975); University of Melbourne (1975–1976); and the Royal Institution (1976–1979).
  In 1979, Fleming began his independent research team with a faculty appointment at the University of Chicago. He was promoted to associate professor at the University of Chicago in 1983 and in 1985 was made a full professor. In 1987, Fleming was named the Arthur Holly Compton Distinguished Services Professor a position which he held for ten years. At the University of Chicago, Fleming served for three years as the chair of the chemistry department. During his time at the University of Chicago, he worked with John Keith Moffat to found the University's first new research institute in 50 years, the Institute for Biophysical Dynamics.
  Fleming transitioned his research team to the University of California, Berkeley in 1997 where he held joint appointments as professor in chemistry and the founding director of the physical biosciences division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. In 2002, Fleming received an appointment as the Melvin Calvin Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at UCB. Fleming was also founding director of the California Institute for Quantitative Biosciences (QB3) based at UC Berkeley.
  In the areas of service to the university, Fleming also served as the vice-chancellor for research at UCB from April 2009 to 2015.