It's been a banner year for the Department of Chemistry. This week three of its staffers will be toasted for their contributions to teaching and research at the university. For the high quality of research they've been conducting over the past decades, longtime colleagues HOD Professor Allen Rodgers (right in pic) and Professor Mino Caira have both been elected as UCT Fellows this year. Rodgers and Caira go way back - they started their PhDs together under Professor Luigi Nassimbeni more than 30 years ago, graduating within six months of each other in 1974. That was about the same time that Dr Bette Davidowitz, another department member who will be saluted at graduation, started her undergraduate studies at UCT. Davidowitz, who also bagged this year's Chemical Education Medal from the South African Chemical Institute (SACI), was named as a 2004 winner of the university's Distinguished Teacher Award. She becomes, says Rodgers, the fourth staff member currently on the department's books to have landed the UCT award, joining former recipients Professor John Moss, Associate Professor Tim Egan and Associate Professor David Gammon. That makes up 25% of the department's current teaching staff. So forgive the department if they look a little smug this week.