In 1997 he was awarded the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine together with Konrad Beyreuther and Colin L. Masters for contributions to the understanding of neurodegenerative diseases.[2] He has also received the Metlife Foundation Award for Medical Research in Alzheimer's Disease (1987), the Taylor Prize (1994), the Charles A. Dana Award for Pioneering Achievement in Health and Education (1998), the Neuronal Plasticity Prize (2004), and the William Allan Award of the American Society of Human Genetics (2016).