[4] He began his Ph.D. studies in physics at Yale University in 1921, but was forced to return home in the winter of 1921 when his health failed again.

[4][1] His master's thesis work on triboluminescence spectra, the frequencies of light generated by breaking chemical bonds, was done under the supervision of John Cunningham McLennan, one of the leading physicists in Canada at the time.

[2] Working under Alfred Fowler, he studied the Zeeman effect and the spectra of palladium, copper, and ionized silver.

During this time Beals became acquainted with observational astronomy by using the small observatory in the Royal College of Science building.

[4] At the DAO, he studied emission lines in the spectra of hot stars and gas clouds in the interstellar medium.

[5] He showed that the broad emission lines seen in Wolf-Rayet and P Cygni-type stars were due to strong stellar winds.

[10][4] During World War II, Beals spent two-year researching defenses against chemical weapons and designed gas masks.

He was appointed Dominion Astronomer one year later, and began to rebuild the observatory's scientific programme, which had suffered due to budget cuts during the great depression and a lack of staff during World War II.

[1] In 1966, he was awarded the inaugural Meteoritical Society Leonard Medal for his work on identifying Canadian impact craters.