 In 2002, she was the sole American representative on the international team which received the Descartes Prize in Astrophysics, which recognizes scientific breakthroughs from European collaborative research in any scientific field.She was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015 as well as a foreign member of the Academy of Athens (Greece) in 2016.Kouveliotou was married to fellow astrophysicist Jan van Paradijs.