Created by Col. H.A. Toulmin, U.S. Army Air Corps. This medal was first awarded in 1988. Two medals may be awarded annually—one to a Regular Member of SAME (including Life, NCO, Fully-Retired or Sustaining Member Representative) and one to a Young Member of SAME—based on quality of the article.

Eligibility:
In order for an article to be eligible for consideration for the Toulmin Medal:

1. Regular Member: All authors of an individual article in The Military Engineer must be a member of SAME prior to publication of the article. In the case of multiple authors of an article, the lead author of the winning article will be awarded the Toulmin Medal.
2. Young Member: The lead or sole author of an article in The Military Engineer who has not passed his/her 36th birthday in the year in which the article was published and was a member of SAME prior to publication of the article. If multiple authors, all other authors must be a member of SAME prior to publication of the article but need not be Young Members.

Nomination Criteria:
The published article must:

1. Contribute to the knowledge of military engineering or national security; and/or
2. Publicize and preserve the accomplishments of engineers in their missions throughout the world.

Nomination Process:
No nominations are accepted for this medal. A committee selects based on the articles published in The Military Engineer in the prior year.

Evaluation Criteria:
Articles that are eligible for the Toulmin Award and meet the nomination criteria will be evaluated by a panel of judges based on the overall quality of the article including writing style, and the use of strong examples and real-life scenarios, up-to-date facts, sound approaches to solving problems and, where applicable, concise information that addresses the impact of the method, technology or system to users in the years ahead.