Today, on 11 August, JINR Director Assistant for Radiation Medicine, a chief researcher of the Scientific and Experimental Department of New Accelerators of the Laboratory of Nuclear Problems Grigory Shirkov turns 70.

Grigory Dmitrievich is Doctor of Physics and Mathematics, Professor, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. At JINR, he worked his way up from a junior researcher to the chief engineer of the Institute, holding this position for many years.

After the graduation from the Faculty of Physics of MSU, Grigory Shirkov got a job at the Joint Institute. In the first years of his work at JINR, he took part in the design and construction of the JINR collective heavy ion accelerator. In 1984, together with Evgeny Donets, he proposed and developed a method of ion cooling. In 1987-92, he was the leader of the JINR’s reconstruction project of the KUTI accelerator into the ring ionizer ERIS, a source of multicharged ions of a new type.

Grifory Shirkov devoted his Doctoral thesis to the theory of ion accumulation in multicharged ion sources and defended it in 1993. In the same year, following the results of an international competition, he was invited to CERN, where he conducted theoretical research on ion sources for about two years.

In 2003, Grigory Shirkov was elected Corresponding Member of the Nuclear Physics Section of the Physical Sciences Department of RAS.

He has been the leader and co-leader of a number of JINR projects for more than 20 years. In the early 2000s, he was a co-leader of the DELSY (Dubna Electron Synchrotron) project, the 3rd generation SR source. In 1999 – 2001, he led the project of the International Science and Technology Centre (JINR, Dubna – VNIIEF, Sarov – RIKEN, Japan) called “Numerical simulation and optimisation of accumulation and production in multicharged ions sources”.

Grigory Shirkov has headed JINR’s work on the International Linear Collider (ILC) since 2005, and the CLIC (Compact Linear Collider) since 2012. Grigory Shirkov was a member of the International Coordinating Committee of ILC Global Design Efforts. He is a member of the CLIC Collaboration Board, the TESLA Collaboration Board, and the Asian Committee for Future Accelerators (ACFA).

Since 2005, Grigory Dmitrievich has headed the development and construction of accelerators for hadron therapy at JINR being conducted in collaboration with IBA (Belgium) and Institute of Plasma Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (ASIPP).

He is an author and a co-author of more than 400 scientific papers and 11 inventions.

He is a laureate of the Young Prize of the Moscow Region (1987). He received the Rosatom badge “Academician Kurchatov” of two degrees in 2011 and 2016 and the Medal “For impeccable work and honours” III degree in 2021. He won the Youth JINR Prize Competition (in 1980) and the JINR Prize Competition many times.

Grigory Dmitrievich has always actively participated in scientific, organizational, and educational activities. Thus, he is a member of two JINR Dissertation Councils and the Science and Technology Council No. 9 of the State Corporation “Rosatom”. He was Chairman, Co-Chairman, and Scientific Secretary of organizing committees of international conferences, meetings, and schools for young scientists. Grigory Shirkov supervised a number of student and Candidate theses. In 1988-92, the scientist held the position of an Associate Professor of the Department of Physics of the Volga Higher Military Construction Command School, and he has been Professor of the Department of System Analysis and Management since 1997. In 2007 – 2014, he was Chairman of the State Examination Commission of the State University “Dubna” and Professor of the Moscow Institute of Radio Engineering, Electronics, and Automation more than 15 years.

JINR Directorate, friends, colleagues, students warmly congratulate Grigory Dmitrievich on his jubilee and wish him every success, prosperity, health, and happiness!