Ferland was named as American Astronomical Society Fellow in 2021 and as Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2022.
Both cited his development of the Cloudy spectral simulation code.
In 2016 he received Catedratico de Excelencia Guillermo Haro from
the National Institute of Astrophysics, Optics and Electronics, (Tonantzintla, Puebla, Mexico). 
A Festschrift was held in his honor at National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico City in 2016.
He has received many honorary visiting positions:
* At Cambridge University
** Staff Member, Institute of Astronomy, 1978-1980
** Senior Visiting Fellow, 1987, 1990, 2007–2008, 2022 
** Sackler Visiting Fellow, 2007-2008
** Visiting Associate, Darwin College, 2007-2008
** Kavli Visiting Fellowship, DAMPT (Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics), 2019
* At Queen's University Belfast 
** Distinguished Visiting Fellowship, Centre for Experimental Physics,  2002-2005
** Leverhulme Professor  2014-2015 
** Visiting Research Professor, School of Mathematics and Physics, 2017-2018
* Other Positions 
** Visiting Fellow, Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics, University of Colorado Boulder 1990-1991 
** Visiting Astronomer, Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory, La Serena, Chile 1992-1993
** Visiting Professor, Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Toronto, Canada, 1998-1999
** Visiting Astronomer, Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Warsaw, Poland 2015