David Pines (born 8.06.1924) is an American theoretical physicist, a member of the National Academy of Sciences (1973). He was born in Kansas City. He graduated from the University of California at Berkeley (1944) and Princeton University (1948). In 1950 — 52 he worked at the University of Pennsylvania, in 1952 — 55 at the University of Illinois, and in 1955 —58 at Princeton. From 1959 he has been professor at the University of Illinois.
His work is in solid-state physics, plasma physics, the quantum theory of liquids and theoretical astrophysics. In 1952 Pines and D. Bohm derived an equation describing a plasma and developed the theory of plasma oscillations, and in the theory of metals he pointed out (1953) the existence of collective excitations in metals, which were called plasmons. He developed a theory of the scattering of electrons and holes by optical vibrations of the lattice. He proposed (1962) a quasi-linear mechanism of interaction in a plasma. His work was also devoted to the study of neutron stars, discrete sources of X-ray emission, white dwarfs and quantum liquids.