or Dick Makinson, was an Australian physicist and communist activist, known for his contributions to solid-state physics and amorphous semiconductors.
[2] His work in this area is cited in the classical book Introduction to Solid State Physics by Charles Kittel.
[6] 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.
[7][8] Makinson was a friend and colleague of John Clive Ward[9] and assisted in the creation of the physics program at Macquarie University where he obtained a position in 1968.