Prior to coming to Notre Dame, Beers was Director of Kitt Peak National Observatory (2011-2014), and for 25 years was a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Michigan State University (1986-2011), retiring from that position as University Distinguished Professor.

Beers has published more than 425 refereed papers, and has received multiple Highly Cited Author awards.

They provide crucial information on the astrophysical nucleosynthesis sites of the chemical elements, and are powerful tracers of the assembly and evolution of large spiral galaxies.

In 2017, Beers and his graduate students were part of a team that identified the characteristic signature of the astrophysical r-process in the kilonova associated with a neutron star merger.

This site is thought to be responsible for the production of over half of the elements in the periodic table heavier than iron.