From 1997 to 1999, he was a program coordinator of Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation) in Perm Krai.

In 2000, he defended his thesis titled "Electroconvective instability of flows of a weakly conducting liquid in a vertical capacitor" and was awarded the rank of Candidate of Physical and Mathematical Sciences.

On 6 May 2010 he defended his doctoral thesis "Dissipative structures and non-stationary processes in interphase hydrodynamics" at the Institute of Continuous Media Mechanics Russian Academy of Sciences Ural Branch.

Since 2012, he has been a member of the Perm Krai Government Council that chooses scientific projects realizing by international research groups of scientists on the basis of state higher vocational education institutions and (or) scientific organizations of Perm Krai.

Furthermore, Makarikhin is the Head of the Organizing Committee of a trans-regional multi-subject academic competition "The Young Talents" which is for schoolchildren.

Makarikhin conducts his scientific research in the field of fluid, gas, and plasma mechanics.

Makarikhin has published over 50 articles in the international, central, and local press, presented reports at All-Russian conferences.