Richard Makinson

Who was Richard Makinson?

Richard Elliss Bodenham Makinson, known as R.E.B. or Dick Makinson, was an Australian physicist. He first enrolled as pupil number 1699 at North Sydney Boys High School and later completed secondary education at Sydney Church of England Grammar School before studying at Sydney University.

He contributed to the understanding of thermal conductivity in crystals. His work is cited in the classical book Introduction to Solid State Physics by Charles Kittel. He also contributed to the physics of amorphous semiconductors. This work is cited in the book Quantum Electron Theory of Amorphous Conductors.

During the Cold War, Makinson was suspected of communist sympathies and explicitly denounced by noted anti-communist William Wentworth. As a result he was denied a number of teaching positions, including a research chair at Sydney University where he taught from 1939 to 1968.

Dick Makinson was a friend and colleague of John Clive Ward and assisted in the creation of the physics program at Macquarie University where he obtained a position in 1968. In the late 1970s he was an active supporter of the successful Macquarie science reform movement.