10 Facts About Rachel Makinson

Kathleen Rachel White was born 15 February 1917 near London, England the eldest of three children.

Rachel Makinson was remembered by one teacher as "a voracious reader at school".

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

Rachel Makinson earned a Bachelor of Arts and, later, a PhD in physics, both from Newnham College, part of the University of Cambridge, in England.

Rachel Makinson 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.

Rachel Makinson arrived with her husband, Richard Makinson, as World War II was raging in Europe.

Rachel Makinson was enlisted to join a team of 60 physicists to develop radar technology at Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, in the Radiophysics Laboratory and was one of only three women on the team, including Ruby Payne-Scott, and Joan Maie Freeman.

Rachel Makinson 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.

Rachel Makinson began work in the Division of Textile Physics in 1953, and was a senior principal research scientist from 1971 to 1977.

Rachel Makinson was the first woman to become a chief research scientist at CSIRO.