The University of Pretoria hosts an annual special gala function to pay tribute to academics who have shown exceptional achievement in the preceding year. Two new categories were added to the Academic Achievers awards, namely the Vice-Chancellor’s book awards and an award to recognise innovative community engagement.

The recipient of the Chancellor’s Award: Research was Prof Don Cowan, Director of both the Genomics Research Institute and the Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics. The Vice-Chancellor’s book awards for scholarly books, monographs or collections are awarded for works in both the natural and applied sciences, and in the humanities and social sciences. The award for a book in the natural and applied sciences was made to Prof Jan Boeyens for his book, The chemistry of matter waves and the award for a book in the humanities and social sciences was made to Prof Lorenzo Fioramonti for Gross domestic problem.

Six academics were honoured as Exceptional Academic Achievers and two as Exceptional Young Researchers. The Teaching Excellence and Innovation Laureate awards were made in team and individual categories. Prof Tania Hanekom from the School of Engineering won the individual category and Thea Corbett and Christine Kraamwinkel won the team category for their work in the BSc Extended Programme. The Community Engagement Award went to Dr Martina Jordaan for the JCP Community-based Project which is a flagship module in the Faculty of Engineering, Built Environment and Information Technology.

Ninety-one UP researchers received new ratings or were re-rated by the National Research Foundation, including two who received A-ratings for the first time, namely Prof Andries Engelbrecht (Information Technology) and Prof Yves van de Peer, a part-time professor in the Department of Genetics.

One of the recipients of the Vice-Chancellor's Book Award, Prof Jan Boeyens with Prof Cheryl de la Rey, Vice-Chancellor and Principal, Prof Stephanie Burton, Vice-Principal: Research and Prof Norman Duncan, Vice-Principal: Academic.