Bierbaum studied for a BA in chemistry at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1970.
Her early work at Boulder involved collaborations with Charles H. DePuy and Stephen Leone.
Her research interests strongly overlapped with DePuy and Leone, and focus on the use of mass spectrometry to understand gas-phase ion-molecule interactions, an area of research which is relevant to the fields of atmospheric chemistry and stellar chemistry.
[4][5] She was also an associate editor for the Journal of the American Society for Mass Spectrometry, standing down in 2019 after 20 years.
[1] Bierbaum is also active at the University of Colorado, Boulder, in enabling access to higher education for minorities.