Robert Kraichnan, who was one of Albert Einstein's last assistants at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, has had a long career as consultant in a variety of governmental organizations and private firms, including the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National Science Foundation, and US Department of Energy. He currently resides in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Kraichnan has conducted pioneering research on field-theoretic approaches to turbulence and other non-equilibrium systems. Most noteworthy are his insights into the inverse cascade for two-dimensional turbulence.
V. Zakharov is an expert in mathematical physics of nonlinear phenomena, particularly in the field of weak wave turbulence. His work, which has shed light on plasma physics, hydrodynamics, magnetism and optics, has proven to be instrumental to our basic understanding of these subdisciplines. Zakharov has been active in the education of young scientists, and his numerous students constitute a community that can be called the Zakharov school. Born and educated in the former Soviet Union, Zakharov is director and professor of physics at the Landau Institute for Theoretical Physics in Moscow.
Launched in 1985, the Dirac Medal of the ICTP, given in honour of the one of the world's foremost physicist of the 20th century, is ICTP's highest honour. Previous recipients have included Edward Witten, Tullio Regge and Andrei Linde. The awards ceremony will take place at a later date.