King Albert II of Belgium awarded Désiré Collen hereditary nobility, with the personal rank of Baron in 2013. He was also recipient of the Belgian Francqui Prize in 1984, Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine in 1986, Bristol-Myers Squibb Award for Cardiovascular Research in 1994, Interbrew-Baillet Latour Health Prize in 2005, Insead Innovator Prize in 2009, Robert P. Grant Medal of the International Society for Thrombosis and Haemostasis in 2011, Lifetime Achievement Award of the Belgian-American Chamber of Commerce (BelCham) in 2013, and Lifetime Achievement Award of Scrip in 2013. He received honorary doctorates from Erasmus University, Rotterdam, the Netherlands in 1988; Free University of Brussels (VUB), Brussels, Belgium in 1994; University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, United States in 1995; and Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France in 1999.