For more than 30 years, a tree has been growing beside the Civil Engineering building at the University of Sydney.
Planted in memory of Frank Ientile, a promising PhD student whose life was cut short before he could complete his research, the tree became part of the landscape. Life around the campus changed, but the tree has remained.
When Frank’s sister, Teresa Ientile, returned to campus last year with her husband Daniel, University staff helped her find it again, along the Shepherd Street fence line near the entrance to the Civil Engineering building. There, still visible in the ground, was the plaque honouring her brother.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Teresa says. “I thought how wonderful that it’s still here, that it survived whatever things might have happened around it, and it’s growing strong. It’s so beautiful.”
The tree was planted soon after Frank’s passing by members of the Engineering Faculty Ocean Technology Group who had worked closely with him. Teresa remembers there being a small ceremony at the time, but over the years she often thought about the tree and wondered whether it would still be there.
Indeed, the tree had endured. Like the endowed prize established in Frank’s name, it had continued to grow quietly across decades, preserving the memory of a young engineer through the students and community he never had the chance to know.
A young man with a bright future
Teresa remembers Frank as a bright child who was drawn from a young age to complex things.
“He was very interested in intricate, complicated things,” she says. “He liked history, and he was interested in aeroplanes and anything mechanical.”
Engineering suited the way his mind worked. “He tried to understand how things worked. He used to pull apart toys and put them back together.”
Frank was deeply committed to his research and was nearing the completion of his PhD in Civil Engineering when he suddenly passed away. His death was devastating for the family.
“It was very sudden and just shattering,” Teresa says. In the aftermath, the family tried to focus on what Frank had been working towards and to create something positive from their grief.
That became the Frank Ientile Prize, an endowed prize in Civil Engineering established by the family in his memory.
“We wanted to help someone along to finish what he had started but hadn’t finished,” Teresa says. “He was in the middle of his PhD, nearly finished it, and when something like that happens, you try and find something positive going forward.”
“We wanted to help someone along to finish what he had started but hadn’t finished."
Teresa Ientile
The University of Sydney has long been part of Teresa’s family story.
Teresa studied Economics and Law at the university and went on to build a career in law. Her husband Daniel also studied here, and two of their children later graduated from the University as well.
For Teresa, that connection is especially meaningful because higher education changed the trajectory of her own life.
“I went to university at a time when there were no university fees,” she says. “If that had not been the case, I would not have been able to go to university, and neither would Frank.”
That sense of opportunity sits at the heart of the family’s philanthropy. Teresa remembers winning academic prizes herself as a student and how much the recognition meant.
“It wasn’t so much about the money but the recognition,” she says. “I didn’t expect to be in a position to win anything, but I did, and it was just such a boost.”
She hopes Frank’s prize gives students that same encouragement and belief in their own potential.
Encouraging research that looks to the future
More than three decades after it was established, the Frank Ientile Prize continues to recognise promising research and academic progress in specific areas of Civil Engineering including geo-technical, coastal and environmental engineering.
For recent recipient Haiyi Zhong, the prize has been a meaningful affirmation of her doctoral journey. She says having this work recognised has given her greater confidence in the value of her research and its relevance to future energy and environmental challenges.
The recognition has also carried personal significance.
“The prize is especially meaningful to me as a woman pursuing a PhD in engineering,” Haiyi says. “Recognition like this helps highlight the contributions of women researchers and creates greater visibility for female students in research-intensive fields.”
She says philanthropic support not only recognises achievement but helps create a research culture where students feel valued and encouraged to make meaningful contributions through their work.
For Teresa, that impact affirms the purpose of the prize.
“If Frank was still around, he would have been focussing on that sort of work,” she says. “I’m sure he would have dedicated his life to more research and more geo-technical and environmental developments, so I’m glad to think that someone else is able to do that and is encouraged to do that because of the prize.”
Giving that gives back
Teresa says people who consider giving to scholarships may be surprised by what philanthropy gives back.
“You think you’re giving, but it actually gives back to you as well,” she says. “You are helping someone else. You don’t know who that person is going to be, and you don’t know what that person is going to do with your help, but the fact that you’ve been able to do it, it can give back to you.”
It is a sentiment that returns, fittingly, to the tree.
A small act of remembrance planted decades ago has become a living memorial and a continuing source of encouragement for researchers working towards futures Frank never had the chance to help build.
“I hope people remember that he was a young man with a bright future,” Teresa says. “For whatever reason, it wasn’t to be. But they have that potential, and I hope they take every opportunity they have to fulfil it.”
Hero image: Bianca Andreacchio/ University of Sydney.
Teresa Ientile under the tree planted in her brother's honour. Photo: Bianca Andreacchio/ University of Sydney
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