[1] The intent of the award is to promote the field of mechanics, especially among young researchers, and commemorate the memory of Professor John Douglas Eshelby.
The awardees are formally recognized at the annual Applied Mechanics Division banquet at the ASME-IMECE meeting.
[2] Nominees must be in a tenured or tenure-track faculty position or an independent researcher in a national laboratory and not have reached their 41st birthday by December 31 of the year of the awards presentation.
The selection committee consists of five prominent mechanicians who are editors or editorial board members of mechanics journals.
Pradeep Sharma[17] of University of Houston, Associate Editor of the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids serves as the secretary for the award (2012–present).