Rachel Makinson

Kathleen Rachel Makinson (née White) (15 February 1917 – 18 October 2014) was an Australian physicist and the first woman to become a chief research scientist at the country's research organization, CSIRO.

Biography Kathleen Rachel White was born 15 February 1917 near London, England the eldest of three children. She was remembered by one teacher as "a voracious reader at school".

She became interested in science at age 12 or 13, "I got hooked on atoms and molecules".

She had been awarded a scholarship to study physics at Cambridge University, achieving a Double First in 1939, and was aiming for a career in X-ray crystallography, but after meeting an Australian physicist at the university, she agreed to postpone her doctorate, move to his home country and marry. She arrived with her husband, Richard Makinson (1913–1979), as World War II was raging in Europe.

In Australia, her husband was offered a position at the University of Sydney as a physics lecturer but no similar position was offered to Rachel as the country had placed rigid barriers to prevent most employment of married women.

Expertise After the end of World War II, research into the physics of wool fibres had become increasingly important to Australian wool producers, which She is quoted as saying that, at the time, "next to nothing" was known about of the physical properties of wool fibres or about the processes of felting and shrinkage. 1982: Made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) "for public service in the field of wool research" 2003: Awarded the Commonwealth Government's centenary medal "for service to Australian Society in textile physics"

Selected publications

Mercer, E. H., and K. Rachel Makinson. "20—the Frictional Properties of Wool and Other Textile Fibres." Journal of the Textile Institute Transactions 38.5 (1947): T227-T240. Makinson, K. Rachel. "On the cause of the frictional difference of the wool fibre." Transactions of the Faraday Society 44 (1948): 279–282. Makinson, K. Rachel. "Some Replica Techniques Useful in Electron Microscopy of the Surface of the Wool Fiber." Textile Research Journal 20.1 (1950): 22–28. Makinson, K. Rachel. "Studies of the Movement of Wool Fibers in Fabrics During Felting, With Particular Reference to the Permanency of Pleats: Part I: Light Felting and its Effect on Pleats in a Worsted Fabric." Textile Research Journal 29.5 (1959): 431–439. Makinson, K. Rachel, and David Tabor. "The friction and transfer of polytetrafluoroethylene." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences 281.1384 (1964): 49–61. Makinson, K. Rachel. "Some New Observations on the Effects of Mild Shrinkproofing Treatments on Wool Fibers." Textile Research Journal 38.8 (1968): 831–842. Makinson, K. Rachel. "Mechanisms involved in shrinkproofing by degradative treatments." (1971). Makinson, K. Rachel, and Judith A. Lead. "The nature and function of the resin in the chlorine/resin shrinkproofing treatment of wool tops." Textile Research Journal 43.11 (1973): 669–681. Makinson, K. Rachel. "The role of chlorine in oxidative antifelting treatments of wool." Textile Research Journal 44.11 (1974): 856–857.

References.