Leemans is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Physical Society (APS), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He has received recognition that includes the 1992 APS Simon Ramo Award for his dissertation, the 1996 Klaus Halbach Award, the 2005 United States Particle Accelerator School Prize for Achievement in Accelerator Physics and Technology, the 2009 E.O. Lawrence Award from the U.S. Department of Energy, the 2010 American Physical Society John Dawson Award for Excellence in Plasma Physics Research, the 2012 Advanced Accelerator Concepts Prize, the 2014 Department of Energy Secretary’s Achievement Award for the BELLA Project and the 2016 IEEE Particle Accelerator Science and Technology Award.
Leemans is especially proud of having been the research advisor for more than 20 Ph.D. students thus far, including three who received outstanding dissertation awards from professional societies.