In 2014, he was awarded the ARC Laureate Fellowship. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science and the Optical Society of America. He has won numerous awards including the Muhlmann Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (2011), the Jackson Gwilt Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society (2012), the WH Steel Medal from the Australian Optical Society (2015), and the Peter McGregor Team Prize (2016) for the development of SAMI. He was the 2016 NSW Scientist of the Year. In 2017, he was awarded the Thomas Ranken Lyle Medal from the Australian Academy of Science, the first astronomer to receive this recognition in over 40 years.