Dmitri Vasilyevich Shirkov (born 3.03.1928) is a Soviet theoretical physicist and a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1960). He was born in Moscow. He graduated from Moscow University (1949). In 1956 — 59 he worked at the Mathematical Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in 1960 — 69 he was head of the department of theoretical physics of the Institute of Mathematics of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Since 1969 he has been head of a sector at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna).
His work concerned quantum field theory, the theory of superconductivity, approximate methods in the theory of the slowing down of neutrons, and the dynamics of strong interactions of particles at low energies. Together with N. N. Bogolyubov he constructed in 1954—58 the axiomatic perturbation theory in quantum field theory and developed (1955 — 56) the renormalisation group method. He created and developed (1959 — 70) a scheme for the quantitative description of elastic and quasi-elastic hadron interactions at low energies. He introduced the concept of a universal short-wavelength repulsion of hadrons, which affects strong interactions at low energies.
The Lenin Prize (1958).