Nomination Deadline: November 1st

The Engineering Mechanics Institute (EMI) established The EMI Leonardo Da Vinci Award in 2011. The purpose of the award is to recognize outstanding young investigators early in their careers for promising ground-breaking developments in the field of Engineering Mechanics and Applied Sciences as relevant to Civil Engineering, understood in the broadest sense.

Recent winners

  • 2024: Xiaojia Shelly Zhang, Ph.D. A.M.ASCE

View all winners

Rules

  1. The award is given every year to a young investigator in the field of Engineering Mechanics and Applied Sciences as relevant to Civil Engineering.
  2. At the time of nomination (November 1 of the year preceding the year of award) nominees must be EMI or ASCE/EMI members in good standing and either be under 35 years of age or have worked no more than 7 years since receiving their (first) doctoral degree, whichever is less restrictive. No one shall receive an EMI Leonardo Da Vinci Award more than once.
  3. The nominee’s contributions should have the promise to define new directions in theory and application of Engineering Mechanics, in the vein of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), a man of unquenchable curiosity and feverishly inventive imagination.

Leonardo da Vinci, in his work related to mechanics, conceptualized many later developments in solid and fluid mechanics, like the bending of beams or the partitioning of energy into potential and kinetic components which is now known as the Bernoulli Theorem in Fluid Mechanics.

Nominations

The nomination package shall consist the following documents, submitted as a single .pdf file:

  1. A cover letter, signed by the nominator.
  2. A completed Official EMI Award Nomination form (PDF).
  3. 3 letters of recommendation, in addition to the cover letter (submittal of more than 3 letters of recommendation will automatically disqualify the nomination).
  4. The nominee's CV.
  5. A 1-page research statement of the Nominee.
  6. 3 publications in peer-reviewed journals, which either have been published or have been accepted for publication.

The award will be given without regard for Society membership or nationality. No individual shall receive the award more than once. The deadline for nomination is November 1 of each year. The award consists of a plaque and will be presented during the EMI annual conference.

Nominations should be submitted to Verna Jameson, EMI Director or mailed to:

Engineering Mechanics Institute of ASCE
1801 Alexander Bell Drive
Reston, VA 20191
Attn: Verna Jameson

Download nomination form (PDF)