 Vakil has received many awards, including an NSF Career Fellowship, a Sloan Research Fellowship, an American Mathematical Society Centennial Fellowship, a G. de B. Robinson Prize for the best paper published in the Canadian Journal of Mathematics and the Canadian Mathematical Bulletin, and the André-Aisenstadt Prize from the Centre de Recherches Mathématiques at the Université de Montréal (2005).In 2012 he became a fellow of the American Mathematical Society.He was a member of the Canadian team in three International Mathematical Olympiads, winning silver, gold (perfect score), gold in 1986, 1987, and 1988 respectively.