Dr. Makedon received a doctorate in computer science from Northwestern University in 1982. Her research interests include bioinformatics, pervasive computing, cybersecurity, human and computer interaction, sensor networks and image processing.

Dr. Makedon joined the faculty of the University of Texas at Arlington in 2006. Between 1991 and 2006 she has been a professor of Computer Science and Chair of the Master Program at Dartmouth College, in the Department of Computer Science. While at Dartmouth she founded and directed the Dartmouth Experimental Visualization Laboratory, or DEVLAB. In 2006 she served as program director for the National Science Foundation's Office of Cyberinfrastructure (OCI). Dr. Makedon has also taught at the University of Texas at Dallas, where she founded and directed the Computer Learning Research Center (the CLEAR Center), and at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

She is the author of numerous research articles, has received many NSF and other awards and is a recipient of a senior Fulbright award. She is the editor of the ACM Multimedia Systems Journal, the Journal of E-Commerce Tools and Applications and senior editor the the International Electronic Journal on E-Commerce Tools and Applications (eJETA.org). She has graduated over 15 Ph.D. students, numerous Masters students and has served on numerous conference committees and NSF panels.

She has supervised Ph.D. students in computational multimedia and pervasive computing algorithms with applications in the areas of bioinformatics, biomedical informatics and sensor-based assistive environments. With her team she has been developing data modeling and data analysis tools with broad impact in biomedical computing and bioinformatics, security and other areas.