Professor B.V. Kamat said this on Sunday at the association’s annual day meet, during which prizes were given to meritorious students besides honouring a faculty member.

“We are planning to collect books worth Rs 1 lakh for the chemistry department library for post-graduate students and above, so that students can save their time,” said Kamat.

The association is not only helping the department financially, but it also aims to institute fellowships for students.

“The association is ten-year-old with 600 members and every year we meet discussing about our work while reminiscing about our days in the university,” he said.

For this year’s annual day, the department invited the head of the material science department of Sardar Patel University, Prof. L M Manocha, who delivered a lecture on “Innovations in nano-technology”.

The lecture was followed by the prize distribution ceremony. Two students, Meghna Shelar from under-graduate level and Pravin Parmar from post-graduate level, received Professor K M Trivedi Memorial Gold Medal and Deepti Bhayani Memorial Gold Medal respectively for securing first rank in the department. Anju Chowdhury from post-graduate level received C.S. Shah Memorial Cash Prize. Two PhD students, Ran Bahadur Yadav and Nikunj Bhatt, were honoured for their research work in their respective areas: coordinate complexes and catalysis. Faculty member Dr N.N. Thaker was felicitated for his service of 25 years.