Frank received his PhD from Lancaster University with a dissertation on the application of video semantics and thematic representation for automated film editing, which also contained rules for humor. Frank came to Amsterdam where he first worked as a researcher at the Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica. In 2007, he joined the Informatics Institute.

Frank was a deep and broad thinker, which was reflected in his research that investigated how intelligent systems can support human communication and creativity. Early in his career he helped lead the development of the MPEG-7 standard, which extended earlier standards to describe multimedia metadata. For 14 years, he contributed as editor and author of the IEEE Multimedia Magazine’s Media Impact and Media Beat columns bridging academia and industry with inquisitiveness, incisiveness and humor.

He was pillar of the interactive digital narrative community. He founded the Computational Semiotics for Games and New Media (CoSIGN) conference. Subsequently, he was critical in the establishment of the International Conference on Interactive Digital Storytelling (ICIDS) series where he served on the executive board of its steering committee.  He was known for his welcoming and kind support for emerging scholars. To honor his legacy, the conference will establish a yearly Frank Nack Award for Excellence in Interactive Narrative Research. One of his last works was the development of an encyclopedia for the field.

Frank was a passionate educator. As a long-serving programme director for the Master's programme Information Studies he helped it to thrive, navigating it through transitions in content, goals and staffing. He supervised over eighty Master's theses during his time at the UvA and he engaged with his students encouraging them to reflect and revise and to make their work their own.  In 2018, he was the UvA Lecturer of the Year. A student wrote:

Frank enjoyed music and philosophy. He often would like to come back to Habermas on the importance of having inclusive, open, honest and reflective conversations. As an academic and a person he embodied those values. The UvA and the broader Amsterdam and international computer science community will miss him greatly.

--Prof. dr. Paul Groth