Professor Somerville consults, nationally and internationally, to a wide variety of bodies including governments, NGOs, UN agencies, and private corporations.
She has received many honours and awards including the Order of Australia, eight honorary doctorates, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales.
In 2003 she was chosen by an international jury as the first recipient of the UNESCO Avicenna Prize for Ethics in Science; in 2013 she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for services to higher education; and in 2014 she received the Jean Echlin Award for Ethics in Palliative Care sponsored by the de Veber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research.
In 2020, Pope Francis appointed her a Dame of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great.