Fredrik ‘Zach’ Zachariasen; Caltech Theoretical Physicist

Fredrik “Zach” Zachariasen, 68, veteran Caltech theoretical physicist who worked on several federal and international committees dealing with nuclear power. A native of Chicago, Zachariasen earned degrees in physics at the University of Chicago and Caltech. After a year in research at UC Berkeley, he taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford and then in 1960 joined the Caltech faculty. He remained there until his retirement in September. Sought out as a government consultant throughout his career, Zachariasen served as associate director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1981-82 and for many years was an active member of the secretive and prestigious JASON committee, which advises the federal government on proposed futuristic weapons. The physicist also was on advisory committees and panels for the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the United States and Russia Joint Committee on Fundamental Properties of Matter, the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy and was a trustee of the Aspen Center for Physics. He was the author of three books, including his highly significant “Electromagnetic Structure of Nucleons.” In recent years, Zachariasen directed his expertise toward studying the physics of oceans. On Dec. 9 in Los Angeles.