 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.