TUCSON — The 2003 Dirac Medal has been awarded to Professors Vladimir E. Zakharov and R.H. Kraichnan, announced the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics.
Zakharov, Professor with The University of Arizona Department of Mathematics, and former Director of the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics in Moscow, along with Kraichnan, received the Dirac Medal "for their distinct contributions to the theory of turbulence".
According to the Selection Committee, Zakharov put "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".
Founded in 1964 by Nobel Laureate Abdus Salam, the Centre, in Trieste, Italy, operates under the aegis of two United Nations Agencies: UNESCO and IAEA. Awards from the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics honor and encourage high level research in the fields of physics and mathematics.
The Dirac Medal is awarded each year on the birthday of P.A.M. Dirac, who won the Royal Medal in 1939, the Copley Medal in 1952, and shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with E. Schrödinger in 1933.
For additional information please see:
Contact: Nicholas M. Ercolani (520) 621-2713,
ercolani@math.arizona.edu
Writer: Christa King (520) 621-2713,
cking@math.arizona.edu
K.R. Sreenivasan
Abdus Salam Honorary Professor and Director
The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics
20 August 2003 (revised 16 Sep 2003)