Kathleen Rachel Makinson

Kathleen Rachel Makinson (nee White) was the first woman at CSIRO to become a Chief Research Scientist (in the Division of Textile Physics) and also, at the time, the first to hold the position of Acting Chief. She was an authority on wool felting friction and shrink proofing.

Qualifications and awards

Dr Makinson held a Bachelor of Arts and a PhD, both from Newnham College, Cambridge, UK. In 1981, she was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and in 1982 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

Career timeline

1979-82: Assistant Chief, CSIRO Division of Textile Physics

1977-82: Chief Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Textile Physics

1971-77: Senior Principal Research Scientist, CSIRO Division of Textile Physics

1964-71: CSIRO Division of Textile Physics

1961-63: Visiting Scientist at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge

1957-61: CSIRO Division of Textile Physics

1953-55 and 1950-52: ICI Research Fellow in Electrical engineering at the University of Leeds

1945-50: Division of Physics at the National Standards Laboratory

1944-45: CSIR Radiophysics Laboratory

1941-44: Assistant Lecturer at the University of Melbourne

1939-41: Research Assistant in Physics at the University of Sydney