He was the 1999 laureate for the Bower Award and Prize for Achievement in Science. The American Geophysical Union awarded him its James B. Macelwane Award in 1979 for outstanding contributions to geophysics by a young scientists and later in 2002 its Roger Revelle Medal for outstanding research contributions to the understanding of Earth's atmospheric processes, biogeochemical cycles, and other key elements of the climate system. The World Cultural Council honored him with the Albert Einstein World Award of Science in 2004.
Cicerone revived the baseball program at UC Irvine in 2002, while he was its chancellor. The baseball field at UC Irvine's Anteater Ballpark was named after Cicerone in 2009.
Ralph Cicerone and his wife Carol Cicerone endowed a graduate fellowship at UCI in 2009.