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

Susan Lee – Environmental pioneer

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!

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Lucas (Tuan) Tran – Energy Engineer

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…

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Bec Pedler – R&D technician, Clean Seas Seafood

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…

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Alexander Makarowsky – Maths modelling and energy

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.

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Joe Kupke – Man of the trees

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…

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Michael Dello-Lacovo – Space scientist

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’….

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Kate Delaporte – Curator, Waite Arboretum

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…

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Daniel Osborne – Brewing with Coopers

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…

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Nicholas Booth – Sustainable agriculture

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…

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Cathy Apps – Landscape designer

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….

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