David Albertovich Frank-Kamenetskii (Russian: Давид Альбертович Франк-Каменецкий, August 3, 1910 – June 2, 1970) was a Soviet theoretical physicist and chemist, professor and doctor of physical, chemical and mathematical sciences.
In 1934, Frank-Kamenetskii wrote a letter to Professor Nikolay Nikolaevich Semenov in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) about chemical thermodynamics.
Impressed by the letter, Professor Semenov invited Frank-Kamenetskii to join the Institute of Chemical Physics as a graduate student.
In 1938, Frank-Kamenetskii received his Candidate of Sciences (CSc) degree (PhD equivalent) in chemistry from the Institute of Chemical Physics.
After the Nazi Germany invasion at the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) in June, 1941, Frank-Kamenetskii and his family was evacuated to Kazan on the Volga River, where the Institute of Chemical Physics was relocated.
Between 1948 and 1956, Frank-Kamenetskii lived in Sarov and worked on the Soviet atomic bomb project in the secret military research institute code-named "Arzamas-16" or the "Installation".