Record attendance for milestone meeting

...another year on, another MSIT meeting. But this one was a special milestone - 30 glorious years of the MSIT. Almost 60 scientists from the world of Materials Constitution descended on Schloss Ringberg in the beautiful Bavarian Alps; the spiritual home of the MSIT, for a week of science and camaraderie. The meeting had at its heart, as always, the Group Work, where all the intense work of the team takes place. There was also a period of reflection in a special session of presentations outlining the past 30 years, culminating with the official presentation to Günter Effenberg of the Honorary Degree of Doctor of FIPMS by the team from Kiev.

Never in the field of Materials Science has there been a team so successful as the MSIT. A truly global network, cooperating on a massive scale. The achievements over those 30 years are staggering.

18 volumes of Ternary Alloys
18 volumes of the Red Books
17 volumes of Landolt-Börnstein ternary evaluations
2 volumes of P-T-X evaluations
1 monograph on Me-B-C systems.

And now we're in the digital age, and with the coming of MSI Eureka, the team has amassed in the region of 4300 critical evaluations

.....and still counting

The success of the MSIT is really down to one man, without whom none of this great work would have been possible. Just over 30 years ago, Günter Effenberg had a dream. To produce a 'Hansen' for ternary alloy systems, and to do this, he needed a group of like minded individuals to help. With the support of the then head of the PML at the MPI in Stuttgart (Prof. Günter Petzow), the first MSIT meeting was held in the Schloss Ringberg, attended by the greats of the day...Himo Ansara, Alan Prince, Riccardo Ferro to name but just a few. The team has grown in number as well as in stature over the last 30 years, attracting members from all over the globe; China, India, Russia, the Ukraine, the Americas and all the countries of Europe. But without Günter Effenberg's foresight, his passion and his tenacity, the team would simply not have existed.

It has been said that the team is more than just a team. With some of its present members having been there from the very beginning it really is more like a 'family', such is the closeness of its members. If we really have an MSI 'Family', then Günter is surely its Father.

Raise your glass. Here's to the next 30 years. Long live the 'Family'......