His scientific research has focused on computational astrophysics with an emphasis on star formation and late stages of stellar evolution.

Topics include: issues of climate and the human future, technology, and cultural evolution; the nature of mind and experience; science and religion.

His research group developed the AstroBEAR adaptive mesh refinement code used for simulating magneto fluid dynamics flows in astrophysical contexts.

[3] Projects using AstroBEAR include the study of jets from protostars as well the evolution of planetary nebula at the end of the life of a solar-type star.

It attempts to reframe debates about climate change by showing it to be a generic phenomena that is likely to occur with almost any technological civilization on any planet.

[12] Shortly after he and colleagues were awarded a grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to look for evidence of advanced technology on planets outside the solar system, on May 30, 2021, Frank's guest essay, I'm a Physicist Who Searches for Aliens.

You would think that creatures technologically capable of traversing the mind-boggling distances between the stars would also know how to turn off their high beams at night and to elude our primitive infrared cameras."

In September 2023, astrophysicists, including Frank, questioned the overall current view of the universe, in the form of the Standard Model of Cosmology, based on the latest James Webb Space Telescope studies.