Alumni Updates

Cathy Apps – Landscape designer

Cathy Apps

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 Playford Trust TAFESA award money to learn about strategic marketing and promote the studio.

Cathy says this “changed the direction of our business in a few short months”. “This boost to our bottom line and confidence allowed us to dream. We are incredibly busy and love the work.

“My husband left his job as an accountant to work full-time in the business, which has grown exponentially, and we have contractors working for us when we need additional support. We are so grateful to the Playford Trust for assisting, recognising and supporting South Australian scholars.”

More Alumni Updates

Rhona Hamilton – Exploring the brain with lasers

Rhona’s research interests have transitioned from laser physics to laser applications in biology, a field that has opened up new and exciting avenues for exploration. She’s currently in Scotland…

Brooke North – Exploring what’s possible in exploration

Since graduating with Honours in 2020, I’ve gained experience across two different industries, each with a shared focus: exploration. Following my student position, I worked as an Exploration Geologist with OZ Minerals and later BHP…

Alison Gill – Plant scientist for Earth and beyond

Alison received a 2020 Playford PhD Scholarship for her research investigating industrial hemp drought tolerance, water use efficiency and plant physiology. She revealed that hemp can survive when water is scarce by regulating photosynthetic behaviour, offering valuable insights for Australian producers.

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…

SHARE YOUR STORY

We love to hear from our alumni and to share their news. To let us know where your studies have taken you, email an update and a picture to admin@playfordtrust.com.au