Finalists flush with UCT names

Prof Wieland Gevers.

They're sometimes called South Africa's annual "Science Oscars" and this year UCT is very well represented among the legion of finalists for the National Science and Technology Forum Awards on May 28.

The awards are retrospective for 2003 and honour performance of an entirely academic nature; each finalist is considered a role model in the science, engineering or technology fields. The list of categories is saturated with UCT names, including:

• the Institute for Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine's interim director Professor Wieland Gevers (for individuals who have made a significant contribution to SET over a lifetime);
• cardiology's Dr Bongani Mayosi (for individuals who have made a significant contribution to SET over the past two years through research and innovation);
• medical biochemistry's Professor Iqbal Parker, zoology's Professor Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan and Dr Colleen Moloney, and chemical engineering's Associate Professor Alison Lewis for research-capacity development.

This year three new categories have been introduced, sponsored by Eskom and the NRF, to encourage more black entrants into science, technology and engineering. The winners in these sections will also receive special grants. In the senior black researcher category Professors Chinsamy-Turan and Parker are named among the finalists, and in the young black researchers section finalists include human biology's Dr Tania Douglas and mathematics' Dr Gareth Witten.

The Alternative Admissions Research Project at the Centre for Higher Education Development has also been short-listed as a finalist in the not-for-profit organisations who have made a significant contribution to SET over the past three years.