Dmitri Korolkov was born in Gomel in 1925. In 1942 he volunteered to Red Army took part in military operations of World War II, was wounded twice, got demobilized in 1948.
Immediately after the graduation from the Leningrad Polytechnical Institute he began his activity in field of radio astronomy in the group of Pulkovo radio astronomers under the supervision of Prof. S. Eh. Khaikin.
In 1962 Korolkov presented his thesis for the degree of Candidate of Science ( Ph.D. ) and in 1972 he presented his Dr.Sc. thesis in physics and mathematics. In 1969 D. Коrоl'kоv was appointed to be Chief Designer of radio electronic equipment for the world's largest reflector radio telescope RATAN-600, being under construction at that time.
A gifted engineer, a thoughtful researcher, Dmitri K. took an active part in the development of interferometric techniques of solar observations, he was one of initiators of the project of biggest specialized cross-line telescope. In 1962 he created and reduced to practice at the Big Pulkovo Radio Telescope the most sensitive at that time broad - band straight amplification radiometer with a parametric amplifier.
The first observations at Pulkovo showed that the high sensivity of radiometers cannot be implemented becase of the proper inherent radiation of the atmosphere. The double-beam method of combatting atmospheric interferences, he investigated in detail, appeared to be quite efficient in the case of big area aperture antenna, when the entire atmosthere is in the near zone for the radio telescope.
In 1977-1980 under quidance of Dmitri Korol'kov the task of implementation of a novel promising radiometric ciruit was performed. He combined the cryogenic cooling of a radiometer front-end, a novel "balanced noise-adding" radiometer design and cooling of the antenna system with aid of simple nets that screened the proper radiation of the radio telescope foundation, wich made it possible to achieve one of the highest sensivity in the world. Chief Designer of the radio telescope RATAN-600, state prize-winner Dmitri Korol'kov was interested in different areas of radio astronomy achieving nearly always success in his work.