Vladimir Zakharov

Vladimir E. Zakharov served as Professor Emeritus in the Department of Mathematics at The University of Arizona, and as faculty in the Program in Applied Mathematics. He was appointed professor of mathematics at the University in 1992 and elevated to Regents' Professor in 2004. Earlier in his career, Zakharov held positions at the L.D. Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics since 1974 and was elected a full member (Academician) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1991. His educational background includes a specialist degree in physics from Novosibirsk State University in 1963, a Candidate of Sciences degree in 1966 from the same university under advisor Roald Sagdeev, and a Doctor of Sciences degree in 1971 from the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics in Novosibirsk.

Zakharov's primary research focus was the mathematical and physical aspects of nonlinear wave theory, including solitons, wave turbulence, ocean waves, and plasma phenomena. He made foundational contributions to soliton theory, the inverse scattering transform, and Kolmogorov spectra in turbulence. Notable books authored or co-authored by him include Theory of Solitons: The Inverse Scattering Method (1984, with S.P. Novikov et al.), What is Integrability? (1991), and Kolmogorov Spectra of Turbulence I: Wave Turbulence (1992, with V.S. L'vov and G. Falkovich). Selected recent publications are Bound state soliton gas dynamics underlying the spontaneous modulational instability (Physical Review Letters, 2019), Breather wave molecules (Physical Review Letters, 2019), Dynamics of poles in two-dimensional hydrodynamics with free surface: new constants of motion (Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2019), and On the Dissipation Rate of Ocean Waves due to White Capping (JETP Letters, 2019). Zakharov received numerous accolades, such as the Dirac Medal from the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (2003), N.N. Bogoliubov Gold Medal (2019), Martin Kruskal Lecture Award from SIAM (2020), Fellow of the American Mathematical Society (2012), Fellow of the Optical Society (2012), and Fellow of the American Geophysical Union (2018). He also taught advanced courses on solitons and nonlinear waves at the University of Arizona and mentored postdocs and students.

Professional Email: zakharov@math.arizona.edu