Chance joined the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1952. He received the National Medal of Science in 1974.[6] He was also previously elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Medical Sciences, in 1968, as well as a foreign member of the Royal Society (London) in 1981. In 1971 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.[7] He died in the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia in November 2010.[8]