David L. Kohlstedt (born 1943) is an American geologist and geophysicist, known for his experimental studies of the chemical and physical properties of minerals and rocks at high-temperatures and high-pressures.

He was awarded a Ph.D. in solid-state physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1970,[1] for a thesis on the diffusion of carbon in titanium carbide (TiC).

[5] He spent a year at the Cavendish Laboratories at the University of Cambridge from 1970 to 1971, and then moved to MIT where he conducted post-doctoral research with Chris Goetze and Bill Brace from 1971 to 1975.

While at MIT Kohlstedt first began working on the deformation of silicate minerals and rocks from the Earth's mantle.

[1] He was awarded the Harry Hess medal of the American Geophysical Union in 2003 "for his fundamental contributions to understanding the Earth’s upper mantle rheology"[6] and in 2009 was awarded the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London for his studies of the mechanical properties of rocks on Earth and other planets, and the way that they influence geodynamic processes.