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She was born in [[Edinburgh]] and was one of five daughters of William Baird Ross, organist, composer and founder of [[The Edinburgh Society of Organists]] (ESO). The family lived at 22 Royal Crescent in [[New Town, Edinburgh|Edinburgh's Second New Town]].<ref>Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1903</ref>
After being educated at Edinburgh Ladies' College, Marion Ross studied [[Mathematics]] and [[Natural Philosophy]] at [[Edinburgh University]], receiving prestigious bursaries in Mathematics, and graduating with honours. Ross then studied at teacher training college in Cambridge for one year and taught mathematics in a secondary school in Woking, Surrey for two years <ref name="RSE obit"/> In 1928, she took up a post as Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of Edinburgh, and instigated a course in [[Acoustics]] for music students.
In the [[Second World War]] she was a very rare example of a female scientist working for the Admiralty. Based at [[Rosyth]] docks here work largely involved underwater acoustics and hydrodynamics. Her work with [[Charles Glover Barkla|Professor C. G.Barkla]] resulted in her being awarded a PhD in 1943<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Spence|first=Ross, Marion Amelia|date=1943|title=Scattering and filtering of heterogeneous x-rays by matter of small atomic weight|url=http://hdl.handle.net/1842/24283|journal=|language=en|volume=|pages=|via=Edinburgh Research Archive}}</ref>. For one year, she worked under the direction of [[William Lawrence Bragg]] at [[Manchester University]], and together with [[Arnold Beevers]], explored the structure of the crystal [[Beta Alumina]].<ref name="ZfK">{{cite journal| last1=Beevers |first1=C. A. |first2=M. A. S. | last2=Ross | title=The crystal structure of "Beta Alumina" Na2O 11Al(2)O3 | journal=Zeitschrift für Kristallographie| date=July 1937| volume=97| issue=1/2| pages=59–66 | doi=10.1524/zkri.1937.97.1.59}}</ref> They noted there were 'problem' sites in the areas occupied by mobile sodium ions. Subsequently the very presence of these ions was discovered to make this crystal an efficient [[superconductor]]. As a tribute to their discovery, the locations of these ions are now known as ''Beevers–Ross'' and ''anti-Beevers–Ross sites''.<ref name="beevers">{{cite web| url=http://www.royalsoced.org.uk/cms/files/fellows/obits_alpha/beevers_cecil.pdf | title=Cecil Arnold Beevers | work=Crystallography News | publisher=[[Royal Society of Edinburgh]] | year=2001 | accessdate=28 March 2014 }}</ref>
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