 and in 2014 awarded with "Arany János medal" of the 'Hungarian Academy of Science'.A new genus of smut fungi, "Vankya", was named in his honour and several new species "Orphanomyces vankyi" Savile (1974), "Anthracoidea vankyi" Nannfeldt (1977), "Uromyces vankyorum" R. Berndt (2002) and "Tilletia vankyi" Carris & Castlebury (2007) were named for him.He became honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in the Biological Sciences section in 2001.