A large number of postgraduate students gathered at a celebration of their contributions to the academic community. At this Postgraduate Cocktail function, which is held annually, students are lauded and thanked for raising the Rhodes University flag with their remarkable achievements.

Heads and supervisors are encouraged to nominate students within their departments, who they feel deserve recognition for their contributions to excellent research or special achievements. These achievements include awards received at conferences, special prizes won, book chapter contributions, the authoring of published accredited journal papers, or significant creative output.

Rhodes University Vice-Chancellor, Dr Sizwe Mabizela, told students how he looks forward to this event every year. "Thank you for flying our flag high with great distinction and honour," he said. “This is truly one of the greatest highlights of the year for me.”

The following students were recognised:

Ms Kelly Schwarz

• Winner of the DST-Albertina Sisulu Fellowship at the South African Women in Science Awards (SAWiSA).

Ms Natasha Boel

• Published an invited book chapter with Springer as first author and published a paper in a leading journal as first author.

Ms Refilwe Matshitse

• Won the second prize for PhD student oral presentations at the 8th Annual DST/Mintek Nanotechnology Innovation Centre (NIC) Workshop.

Ms Nobuhle Ndebele

• Won the first prize for MSc student oral presentations at the 8th Annual DST/Mintek Nanotechnology Innovation Centre (NIC) Workshop.

Mr Aviwe Magadla

• Received the second prize in the poster presentations at the 8th Annual DST/Mintek Nanotechnology Innovation Centre (NIC) Workshop.

Ms Muthumuni Managa

• Was selected as one of the Mail and Guardian’s top 200 Young South Africans in Science and Technology category.

Ms Zakeera Docrat

• Was listed as one of the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans for 2018 in the category of Justice and Law.
• The African Language Association of Southern Africa conferred her the award of the most outstanding Master’s thesis in Southern Africa in the research area of African Languages.
• Was awarded the 2018 Women in Science Award, in the category of the Department of Science and Technology Albertina Sisulu Doctoral Fellowship for the Humanities and Social Sciences. It is the only doctoral fellowship award, awarded to the humanities and social sciences in South Africa.
• Produced paper for publication, “The Constitutionality of South Africa’s new monolingual language of record policy decision for courts”.
• Produced paper for publication, “Attorneys experiences on language matters in the South African legal system”.
• Produced paper for publication, “The Transformative Power of Language Policies in Higher Education: Legally Speaking”.
• Presented 6 conference papers at the conferences of the International Association of Forensic Linguists; the 19th Interim Conference of the African Languages Association of Southern Africa; and the 9th World Congress of African Linguists (WOCAL) Conference, Mohammed V University, Rabat, Morocco.
• Continued to publish opinion pieces in media forums including City Press Newspaper, The Conversation, Cape Argus and Litnet.

Ms Philiswa Lila

• Won the Gerald Sekoto Award at the 2018 Absa L’Atelier Art Awards for her work “Self-Titled”, and will be flown to Paris next year for a three months residency.

Wallen Mapondera

• Held two solo exhibitions this year, one international and one in South Africa. “Emergency Exit” was exhibited at the prestigious Tyburn Gallery in London, UK and “Samusha Weiri Dongo” was held at the SMAC Gallery in Johannesburg.

Christian I. Nkanga

• Recipient of the Next Generation Scientist Award, as one of 20 young scientists selected from hundreds of applicants across the world by Novartis Pharma and University of Basel to participate in a research programme in Switzerland.

Ms Gcotyelwa Jimlongo

• Best Honours Essay Award by the South African Association of Political Studies (SAAPS).

Mr Desire Chiwandire

• Published an accredited article during his PhD studies: “Wheelchair users, access and exclusion in South African higher education”.

Ms Tinotenda Mangadze

• Published paper titled “Biological monitoring in southern Africa: a review of the current status, challenges and future prospects”.

Jordan Stier

• Published paper titled "How Do I Write in This Strange Place?: The Treatment of Shame and Whiteliness in Contemporary White South African Post- Apartheid Literature"

Ms Katherine James

• Prize for the second best paper at the Southern Africa Telecommunication Networks and Applications Conference (SATNAC), and for presenting paper “Combining Machine Learning With Drone Technology For Field Inspections”.

Ms Samridhi Sharma

• Contributed to published paper, “Leadership and task shifting to address the challenges of Antimicrobial Resistance in South Africa”.
• Contributed to published paper, “Developing and Testing a Culture Sensitive Health Information Leaflet on the Consequences of Alcohol Abuse for Low Literate Support Staff in Rhodes University”.

Damilola Folley

• Contributed to published paper, “Influence of annealing on thermoluminescence of natural quartz: Kinetic analysis and experimental study of apparent inverse thermal quenching. Radiation Measurements”.

Mr Andrew Mulenga

• Published chapter, "Germinating in the cracks: the identity of contemporary Zambian art".

Ms Natasha Moore

• Award for Best Paper in GIS/Remote Sensing (Masters Level) at the Society of South African Geographers (SSAG) Student Conference 2018.

Mrs Bertha Chithambo

• Work published with Xavier Siwe Noundou and Rui W M Krause: “Antimalarial synergy of secondary metabolites from Morinda lucida Benth”.

Ms Manda Kambikambi

• Best Oral Presentation (MSc) at Southern African Society of Aquatic Scientists Congress 2018.

Mr Robert Rangmou Dawam

• Published paper titled, “Thermoluminescence of annealed synthetic quartz: The influence of annealing on kinetic parameters and thermal quenching”.

Prof Jackie Arendse

• Won first prize in the 2018 SAIPA Tax Thesis Competition for the Doctoral degree category.

Nthabeleng Molupe

• Co-authored “The investigation of in vitro dark cytotoxicity and photodynamic therapy of 2,6-dibromo-distyryl BODIPY dye encapsulated in Pluronic F-127 micelles”.

Mr Sebbi Kankondi

• Published paper as first author "Influence of respiratory mode on the thermal tolerance of intertidal limpets".

Idowu Adelana Akinloye

• Published a paper as sole author in an accredited journal: "Towards the implementation of sustainable development goals in Nigeria: Maximizing the influence of religious leaders".

Ms Amy Bray

• Won a student prize at the International Conference on Physics Education held in Muldersdrift, where she presented a poster on her physics Honours project.

Nyiko Mabasa

• Article title: “Effect of graded levels of dietary carbohydrate on growth, feed utilisation and intestinal microbial community structure in dusky kob Argyrosomus japonicus fed a pelleted diet”.

Sinazo Onela Nomsenge

• Won the 2018 South African Sociology Association (SASA) PhD Essay of the Year.

Ms Nompumelelo Baso

• Attended the 45th Annual Research Symposium on the Management of Biological Invasions in Southern Africa, where she won the award for Best Speed Talk for her presentation titled “The Effect of Elevated CO2 on the Biological Control of Four Invasive Macrophytes that are Currently Under Complete Control in South Africa.”

Aviwe Matiwane

• Named one of the Mail & Guardian’s Top 200 Young People of 2018 for her PhD research on palaeobotany, her accomplishments as a science communicator (she was a national Fame Lab finalist in 2017) and for promoting women in Science & Technology.

"I want to acknowledge with deep appreciation your mentors, your supervisors and all those who supported you every step of the way. I want to thank all those who create the right environment for you so that you can achieve what you are achieving. We are incredibly proud of each and every one of you," added Dr Mabizela.