Mary Beth Stearns

Mary Beth Stearns (née Gorman, February 5, 1925 – February 14, 2019) was an American solid-state physicist known for her work on magnetism.

Early life and career
Mary Beth Gorman was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on February 5, 1925. She graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1946. She completed a Ph.D. in nuclear physics in 1952 at Cornell University.

After completing her doctorate, she became a researcher at the Carnegie Institute of Technology. She moved to the University of Pittsburgh in 1957 and to General Dynamics in 1958 before becoming a researcher for the Ford Motor Company in 1960; she remained at Ford for over 20 years, and as a principal scientist became one of the earliest female executives at Ford.

In 1981, Stearns moved to Arizona State University as a professor of physics. She became Regent's Professor of Physics in 1988.

Research
Stearns' early research work involved nuclear Compton scattering, and the spectroscopy of mesonic atoms. Her work on gamma-ray scattering led her to study the Mössbauer effect and to use it to study the energy levels of iron atoms, and this in turn led her to nuclear magnetic resonance studies of magnetic ions, and to theoretical work on the quantum structure of these materials.

Death
Mary Beth Stearns died in Cupertino, California on February 14, 2019, at the age of 94.

Recognition
Stearns became a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1973.