This column offers a sampling of honors recently awarded to UC Davis faculty, staff and units:

The Council of Graduate Schools recently presented its inaugural award for innovation in graduate education to UC Davis Graduate Studies. The ETS/CGS Award for Innovation in Promoting Success in Graduate Education was presented to Graduate Studies Dean Jeff Gibeling on Dec. 3. The award recognized UC Davis’ proposal to develop a pilot program to “enhance faculty preparedness in the academic socialization and success of a diverse doctoral student population,” according to a news release from the Council of Graduate Schools.

Gibeling also was chosen as the 2010 chair of the Council of Graduate Schools’ board of drectors at the group’s December meeting. He has been a member of the board for three years, and is a member of the Commission on the Future of Graduate Education, a joint initiative of the council and the Educational Testing Service. Gibeling has been dean of Graduate Studies since 2002, and is a professor of chemical engineering and materials science.

Law professor Madhavi Sunder was profiled in an article on emerging scholars in the Jan. 7 issue of Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine. The story, an annual feature profiling rising stars in academia, describes Sunder as “one of the nation’s leading scholars in the legal regulation of culture.”

Maggie Morgan, an associate professor of theatre, created the costume design for Camelot, directed by David Lee at the Pasadena Playhouse. She also handled the costume design for The Night is a Child with JoBeth Williams at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Susan Taber Avila, an associate professor of design, will have a solo exhibition of her work at the Robert Hillestad Textiles Gallery at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. The title of the show is “Oh Naturale.” It explores themes of nature and artifice.

Peter Lichtenfels, a professor of theatre and dance, directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Theatre in China.

— Dateline staff