Alumni – Where are they now?
We love to hear from our alumni – and to share their career news and successes.
Below is a collection of short updates from some past Playford Trust scholars. We think they perfectly illustrate the ongoing value of receiving a Playford Trust scholarship or award. As we are so often told, it’s about so much more than the financial support…
If you’re one of our former scholars, please let us know where your work and studies have taken you. Just email an update and photo to admin@playfordtrust.com.au
Bradley Kirk – Material scientist in sustainable energy
2018 Playford Trust Honours Scholarship / 2020 Playford Trust PhD scholarship
Bradley is a material scientist who currently specialises in the development of organic and inorganic-based semiconductors specifically geared towards energy production.
Susan Lee – Environmental pioneer
2006 Playford Trust PhD Environmental Scholarship
I was the first student to receive a Playford Trust Environment Scholarship in 2006. Studies in the environment tend to include a lot of fieldwork and trips away from civilisation, so the scholarship really helped me with these costs!
Lucas (Tuan) Tran – Energy Engineer
2021 Playford Trust/Cooper Energy Petroleum Engineering Scholarship
In 2017, I came to Australia as an international student from Vietnam to pursue a world-class education in Petroleum Engineering at the University of Adelaide. After finishing my Honours degree, I began my PhD project…
Robert Trott – Exoskeleton and physiological measurement
2017 Playford Trust PhD Scholarship
Robbie is now working as a Research Fellow at the Australian Industrial Transformation Institute (AITI) – a national leader in industry and workplace innovation research – and he’s based at Flinders University.
Bec Pedler – R&D technician, Clean Seas Seafood
2019 Playford Trust Regional Science & Engineering Scholarship
Marine mollusc extracts represent an almost entirely unexploited source of broad-spectrum antivirals against human viruses. My Honours project involved assessing the hemolymph (blood fluid) from the Greenlip abalone and Pacific oyster for antiviral activity against Human Coronavirus…
Alexander Makarowsky – Maths modelling and energy
2018 Codan/Playford Trust Engineering Scholarship
The year after winning his scholarship, Alex joined the company that sponsored him – Codan/Minelab Electronics. There he used mathematical modelling to optimise the geometry of metal detector coils.
Joe Kupke – Man of the trees
2018 Playford Trust/TAFE SA Award
At the time Joe received his Playford Trust Award, he was employing just two staff in his arborist business, Adelaide Hills Tree Services. Now there are 10 on the team…
Phiala Shanahan – Professor of Physics at MIT
2011 Scantech/Playford Trust scholarship
In 2020, respected Science News magazine named Phiala one of its Top 10 elite young scientists ‘pushing the boundaries of scientific enquiry’. All of those honoured…
Daniel Austin – Horticulture in four continents
2007 TAFE SA /Playford Trust Scholarship
I was an apprentice in horticulture when I was awarded my Playford Trust Scholarship and, being on an apprentice’s wage, the award opened up a world….
Georgina Duguid – Structural design engineer
2018 Playford Trust Honours Scholarship
Having completed my Bachelor of Civil Engineering at Flinders University in 2018, I am working as a structural design engineer with Mineral Technologies/Downer EDI – the company…
Michael Dello-Lacovo – Space scientist
2014 AusIMM/Playford Trust Honours Scholar
I received the AusIMM/Playford Trust Scholarship for my Honours degree in geophysics in 2014 for the thesis topic ‘heat flow and geothermal energy in South Australia’….
Kate Delaporte – Curator, Waite Arboretum
1996 Playford Trust PhD Scholarship
Kate was only the third student to receive a Playford Trust scholarship. Now she’s Curator of SA’s Waite Arboretum and Senior Lecturer at the Waite Campus of the University of Adelaide…
Daniel Osborne – Brewing with Coopers
2016 Coopers Brewery/Playford Trust Honours Scholarship
My scholarship allowed me to continue studying and complete an Honours degree at the University of Adelaide’s Waite campus, focusing on improving steep conditions during the malting process. My relationship with Coopers blossomed into a career at the brewery…
Jillian Moffatt – Minerals and fluoresence
2015 Scantech/Playford Trust PhD
Jillian completed her doctorate on fluorescence identification of minerals in 2020. Since then she has worked at the University of Adelaide on multiple projects….
Nicholas Booth – Sustainable agriculture
2018 Playford Trust Honours Scholarship
Every year the agricultural industry applies close to 100 million tonnes of nitrogen fertilisers to cropping systems, this comes with high costs and is a major source of pollution…
Thomas de la Perrelle – Engineer at Frazer-Nash Consultancy
2019 Nyrstar/Playford Trust Scholarship
I am a mechanical engineer and physics graduate from the University of Adelaide, and am currently working as an engineer for Frazer-Nash Consultancy. Throughout my university studies…
Cathy Apps – Landscape designer
2018 Playford Trust/TAFE SA award
Cathy completed her studies at Urrbrae TAFE and now runs a successful landscape design business – Catnik Design Studio – in Adelaide. She used her SA award….