| 1995 | Leibniz-Award of the German Research Foundation (DFG) |
| since 1996 | Regular Member of the Chemical Section, Academia Europaea |
| since 1997 | Honorary Professor at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum |
| since 1997 | Honorary Professor at the Freie Universität Berlin |
| since 1997 | Honorary Professor at the Technische Universität Berlin |
| since 1998 | Honorary Professor at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin |
| since 1998 | Regular Member, The Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities |
| 2001 | Fellow of the American Physical Society |
| since 2004 | Foreign Member of the Academia Brasileira de Ciências |
| since 2005 | Fellow of the Institute of Physics, United Kingdom |
| 2006/2007 | Centenary Award and Lecturer, Royal Society of Chemistry |
| since 2006 | Honorary Professor at the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham |
| 2007 | Gabor A. Somorjai Award of the American Chemical Society for Creative Research in Catalysis |
| 2008 | V. N. Ipatieff Lecturer, Northwestern University Center for Catalysis and Surface Science |
| since 2009 | Regular Member, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Halle, Germany |
| 2011 | Karl-Ziegler-Award of the German Chemical Society and Karl-Ziegler Foundation |
| since 2012 | Corresponding Member of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts |
| 2012 | Fellow of the European Academy of Sciences |
| 2012 | Blaise Pascal Medal in Material Science of the European Academy of Sciences |
| since 2013 | Member, European Academy of Sciences (EURASC) |
| 2013 | Corresponding Member of the Chemical Sciences Section and Honorary Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences |
| 2013 | Dr. Honoris Causa of Aix-Marseille Universite |
| 2014 | Gaede-Langmuir Award of the American Vacuum Society |
| 2015 | Michel Boudart Award for the Advancement of Catalysis, sponsored by the Haldor Topsøe Company and administered by the North American Catalysis Society and the European Federation of Catalysis Societies |
| 2014/15 | ERC Advanced Grant 2014/15 "Crystalline and vitreous silica films and their interconversion" (2.4 Mio) |
| 2015 | Bunsen-Denkmünze, Deutsche Bunsen-Gesellschaft für Physikalische Chemie |
| 2015 | Honorary Fellow of Chinese Chemical Society |
| 2016 | Elected Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences |
| 2016 | Dr. Honoris Causa of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) |
| 2017 | Dr. Honoris Causa of the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg |
| 2017 | Visiting Einstein Professor at University of Science and Technology of China |
| 2017 | Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Microbeam Analysis 141 Committee Award |
| 2019 | CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences) President’s International Fellowship for Distinguished Scientists |
| 2019 | 2019 ACS Award in Surface Chemistry |
| 2020 | 2020 Morino Lectureship, Morino Foundation, Japan |
| 2020 | Fellow of the American Vacuum Society |