Vladimir Zakharov

Zakharov was awarded the Dirac Medal in 2003 for his contributions to the theory of turbulence, with regard to the exact results and the prediction of inverse cascades, and for "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". Also a poet. He published several books of poetry in Russia and his works regularly appeared in periodicals, such as Novy Mir, in the 1990s and 2000s. A collection of his poetry in an English translation The Paradise for Clouds was published in the UK in 2009.

Vladimir Zakharov studied at Novosibirsk State University. Training under Roald Sagdeev is recorded. Yevgeny Kuznetsov, Sergey Manakov and Lev Shchur are recorded as having studied under Vladimir Zakharov. The recorded working language is Russian and English. The field of work recorded is theoretical physics. Employment is recorded with University of Arizona. Distinctions recorded are USSR State Prize, Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class, ICTP Dirac Medal and Order of the Badge of Honour.

Vladimir Zakharov was born in Kazan, to Evgeniy and Elena Zakharov, an engineer and a schoolteacher. He studied at the Moscow Power Engineering Institute and at the Novosibirsk State University, where he received his specialist degree in physics in 1963 and his Candidate of Sciences degree in 1966, studying under Roald Sagdeev. Zakharov was married and had three sons. He died in August 2023, at the age of 84.

After completing his Candidate of Science degree, Zakharov worked as a researcher at the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk, where in 1971 he completed his Doctor of Sciences degree. In 1974, Zakharov moved to the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics in Chernogolovka, where he eventually became director. He was elected as a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union in 1984 and as a full member in 1991. In 1992, Zakharov became a professor of mathematics at the University of Arizona, and in 2004 he became the director of the Mathematical Physics Sector at the Lebedev Physical Institute.