William W. and Teresa B. Fleming

Bill Fleming graduated from high school in Alexandria, VA. He initially attended N.C. State to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering. When Bill was a freshman, physics department head Worth Seagondollar attended a coffee at Bill’s dorm (Berry Dorm). Dr. Seagondollar later arranged for Bill to take physics classes for physics students. Bill continued with subsequent physics classes, several taught by Dr. Richard Patty, and switched from undergraduate engineering to physics. When Bill got his bachelor’s degree, the Vietnam War and a low draft lottery number resulted in Bill deciding, with the assistance of Dr. Gary Mitchell, to continue with graduate school while finishing Army ROTC. After earning his commission and attending officer basic schooling at Fort Gordon, GA, Bill was looking for a graduate research topic. A faculty member suggested talking with Assistant Dean Jasper Memory, who gave Bill a monograph on bound water to read. This resulted in a research project with Ors. Jasper Memory and Ray Fornes as co-advisors, the topic being the detection of bound water on cellulose using broad line NMR. After earning his PhD, Bill received a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the National
Institutes of Health and studied elastin structure using NMR. There he also met Teri Basham. Bill then went to the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA to conduct basic and applied research of polymers and other materials using NMR methods followed by research on nonlinear optics for second harmonic generation using doped polymers. Bill left IBM to work as VP for a family-owned government contracting business in Virginia Beach, VA After the family business was sold, Bill got involved with several environmental groups and took several courses in soil microbiology.

Teresa Basham Fleming graduated from high school in Roanoke, VA. Because a high school teacher arranged for her to get a scholarship, she was able to go to college at Madison College (now James Madison University) in Harrisonburg, VA Teri then went to the Medical College of Virginia and earned a degree in medical technology. After working as a medical technologist, Teri went to the Laboratory of Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), where she met Bill Fleming. Because of her interest in research she was offered an opportunity and scholarship to go to graduate school and subsequently earned a PhD in biochemical genetics from George Washington University. After earning her PhD, Teri received a postdoctoral fellowship in the Laboratory of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, CA where she worked on cancer treatment research and AIDS/HIV. When Bill and Teri moved to Virginia Beach, VA, Teri taught classes in the biological sciences at Tidewater Community College. She owes her academic and scientific career to her high school teacher helping her get the initial scholarship to go to college.