Following hot on the heels of MSIT® member, Prof. Rainer Schmid-Fetzer, Dr. Guenter Effenberg has been awarded the Hume-Rothery prize 'In recognition of distinguished achievements concerned with phase relationships in metallic materials or non-metallic materials of metallurgical interest.' This award is long-overdue for Guenter. Although not an academic in the traditional sense (not having a University position, but in charge of a company), he has almost single-handedly promoted and kept alive the field of phase constitution study (in Europe at any rate) through the compilation, editorship and publication of phase diagram compendia such as 'Ternary Alloys' and the Landolt-Boernstein series on ternary alloys systems. For nearly 30 years, Guenter and his team of experts from around the globe (the MSIT®) have been responsible for the publication of more than 60 books on phase diagrams and work related to the study of phase equilibria. With the coming of the digital information age, a switch to an internet based platform, MSI Eureka holds a knowledge base covering more than 56,000 systems, and a bibliographic database of more than 300,000 entries. This is a tremendous achievement and one that is worthy of international recognition. On behalf of the MSIT, I offer our thanks for all your hard work and many congratulations on your award.