 In 1992, he became the first neurologist ever to be elected to the National Academy of Sciences.In 1974, he shared the Ziedses des Plantes Gold Medal (given by the German Society of Neuroradiology and the Medical Physics Society of Wurzburgin) with Godfrey Hounsfield.Oldendorf was also awarded the Albert and Mary Lasker Award for Clinical Research in 1975 along with Prof. Hounsfield for "concepts and experiments which directly anticipated and demonstrated the feasibility of computerized tomography, which has revolutionized the field of neurological diagnosis".