A co-author of over 400 publications that have been cited over 50,000 times (H index > 100), the recipient of over 75 honors and awards from 15 different countries, Saykally is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2004 received the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Hinshelwood Lectureship from Oxford University and the Inaugural International Solvay Chair in Chemistry from the Solvay Institutes of Belgium. He is a UC-Berkeley Distinguished Teacher, and has been active at the national level in science education. Over 150 students and postdocs have trained under his direction, many of whom hold prominent positions in academic, government, and industrial institutions.
* Camille and Henry Dreyfus Award (1979)
*Presidential Young Investigator Award (1984)
*named to Miller Research Professor Chair (1985–1986)
*E. K. Plyler Prize for Molecular Spectroscopy (1989)
* Michelson Prize for Spectroscopy (1989)
* Lippincott Medal for Spectroscopy (1992)
* Berkeley Distinguished Teaching Award (1992)
* American Chemical Society Harrison Howe Award (1992)
* Royal Society of Chemistry Bourke Award (1992)
* Churchill Fellowship at University of Cambridge (1995)
* Humboldt Senior Scientist Award (1995)
*named Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1995)
*named Fellow of the American Physical Society (1989)
*named Fellow of the Optical Society of America
*named Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry
*named Member of United States National Academy of Sciences (1999)
* Pittsburgh Spectroscopy Award (1999)
*ACS Irving Langmuir Prize in Chemical Physics (2000)
*Royal Society of Chemistrys Centenary Medal' (2000)
* Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award (2004)
* Johannes Markus Marci Medal (Czechoslovakia)(2004)
*filled the Morino Lectureship chair (Japan)(2005)
*filled the University of Oxford Hinshelwood Lectureship chair (2006)
*filled the Inaugural Solvay Chair in Chemistry (Belgium)(2008)
* ACS Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry (2009)
* Golden Jubilee Thematic Lectures (Indian Institute for Technology, Delhi) (2011)
* Morris Travers Lectures (Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore) (2011)
* J. C. Bose Memorial Lectures (Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata) (2011)
* Royal Society of Chemistry Faraday Lectureship Prize (2012)
*delivered the W. A. Noyes Distinguished Lecture in Physical Chemistry (University of Texas, Austin) (2013)
*delivered the CaSTL (Chemistry at the Space-Time Limit) Lecture (University of California, Irvine) (2014)
* E. Roger Washburn Memorial Lectureship in Physical Chemistry (University of Nebraska) (2016)
*named Keynote Speaker NANOLYTICA (Simon Fraser University) (2017)
* E. Bright Wilson Award in Spectroscopy (American Chemical Society) (2017)
*received the Jean Dreyfus Lectureship (Hobart and William Smith Colleges) (2018)
*delivered the BESE Distinguished Lecture (KAUST, Saudi Arabia) (2018)
* SCS Lectureship (Swiss Chemical Society) (2018)
*Helmholtz International Fellowship Award (Helmholtz Society, Berlin) (2018)
* Inaugural Claude and Janice Trottier Endowed Lectureship (University of Rhode Island) (2019)
*The Cross Lecture in Physical Chemistry (University of Washington) (2021)
*  Linnett Lecturer(Lennard-Jones Centre Inaugural Meeting; Cambridge, UK) (2023)
*  Spiers Memorial Lecture: (Royal Society of Chemistry; London, UK) (2023)