The son of German immigrants (the musician Carl Barus, Sr. and Sophia, nee Möllmann), Barus graduated from Woodward High School, together with William Howard Taft, in 1874.

After studying mining engineering for two years, he moved to Würzburg, Germany, where he studied physics under Friedrich Kohlrausch, and graduated summa cum laude in 1879.

In 1903 he was appointed as a dean of the Brown University Graduate Department, which he was controlling from his office in Wilson Hall.

By that time, the department had grown large enough to become a school within the university which has been attributed to his many contributions.

[1] Barus died in Providence, Rhode Island, United States.