It is well known that natural frequencies increase when a cantilever beam rotates about the axis perpendicular to its longitudinal axis. Such phenomena that are caused by centrifugal inertia forces are often referred to as the stiffening effects. Occasionally it is necessary to control the variation of a natural frequency or the maximum stress of a rotating beam. By changing the thickness of the rotating beam, the modal or the stress characteristics can be changed. The thickness of the rotating beam is assumed to be a cubic spline function in the present work. An optimization method is employed to find the optimal thickness shape of the rotating beam. This method can be utilized for the design of rotating structures such as turbine blades and aircraft rotary wings.