Basically both notions mean to receive something as recognition. While award is given for a person because of their accomplishments on a given field, reward is rather associated with acknowledgement or encouragement or because of doing something good, for instance, sharing some crucial information with the police. Award can be given in form of medals, titles, certificates, trophies or even in cash, while reward is a promotion or an amount of money. Awards are publicly presented and get publicised, rewards, on the other hand, are personal and private affairs, and thus they do not get publicised. The verb give is used with reward, however, to express the activity to “give” someone an award, we use its verbal form (award). In legal context, reward is an amount of money or other type of compensation offered for a special service, while award (besides the above) can also mean a judicial sentence.
