In Memoriam

ICTP was saddened to learn of the passing of Vladimir E. Zakharov, a Russian mathematician and physicist and longtime friend of ICTP. His research interests included physical aspects of nonlinear wave theory in plasmas, hydrodynamics, oceanology, geophysics, solid state physics, optics, and general relativity. 

Zakharov received ICTP's Dirac Medal in 2003, together with Robert H. Kraichnan, for their distinct contributions to the theory of turbulence, particularly the exact results and the prediction of inverse cascades, and for identifying classes of turbulence problems for which in-depth understanding has been achieved.

In particular, Zakharov's achievements consisted of putting the theory of wave turbulence on a firm mathematical ground by finding turbulence spectra as exact solutions and solving the stability problem, and in introducing the notion of inverse and dual cascades in wave turbulence. 

In 1991, Zakharov was elected an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 1993, he became the director of the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics. In addition to his scientific research, Zakharov was a poet; a collection of his works can be found here (in Russian).