Abstract
In my long professional career I have been involved with numerous studies, evaluations, predictions, limitations and applications of phase diagrams. This lecture will review several aspects of this challenging field, including the progress already achieved, and the opportunities and challenges for the future. The use of the already existing multicomponent materials, and the possibility of  generating new materials  with very specific properties and applications, often begins with the understanding of the phase diagrams involved, and the related phase transformations and phase stabilities. Different phase diagram features are important at high temperatures where diffusion is easy, compared with low temperatures where phase equilibrium may not be possible, and the entropy of mixing tends to zero. The size of the phase particles involved also influences the form of the phase diagram and is another controlling feature: from single crystals, through nano particles, to nearly single atoms.

Massalski Bio—Jan 2014, ONE PAGE SUMMARY ;     
Prof.Thaddeus(Ted)  B. Massalski. Prof. Emeritus of Materials Science, Engineering and Physics,  Carnegie Mellon University. Formerly one of the directors of Mellon Institute, and  Institute Professor. Ted Massalski was born in Warsaw, Poland, on June 29th,1926.  He left Poland abruptly at age 16 during WW2, and via Switzerland and France he finally arrived in Italy where he joined the Polish Second Corps in the British 8th Army.  He started college education in Italy, then moved to England and completed his college education there (London, Birmingham). He married Sheila Harris while at Birmingham University. They came to Chicago in 1955, where Ted was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Metals, University of Chicago. U.S. citizen since 1966.
Advanced Degrees:
       Ph.D.  (Physical and Theoretical Metallurgy), University of Birmingham, 1954.
       D.Sc.  (Physical Metallurgy) for contributions to the field of the theory of alloys,
            University of Birmingham, 1964.
       Doctor honoris causa, Technical University of Warsaw(Politechnika Warszawska), 1973 .
       Laurea(Dr.) honoris causa, Technical University of Turin (Politecnico di Torino), 2011
Academic Record
Co-author (with C.S. Barrett) of 3rd edition “Structure of Metals” – 8 foreign language translations, over 50,000 volumes sold. ASM Binary Phase Diagrams.
 3 other books.   Three ‘Massalski’ Symposia.(1984, 2004 Festschrift, and 2012)
Author, or co-author of numerous chapters, symposia, workshops, etc.
Visiting(appointed)Prof at prestigious Universities: Harvard, Cal Tech, Oxford,  UCLA, Stanford, Buenos Aires, Krakow(AGH), Navy Post. Grad School etc.
Well over 200 publications: thermodynamics, phase diagrams, phase stability, alloy phase transformations,  amorphous materials, magnetic materials, crystallography, meteorites etc.
Over 250 invited lectures, memorial lectures and presentations. Highly cited on ISI.
Professional standing
Member of three foreign Academies. Elected Fellow, or Hon. Fellow, of numerous societies: TMS, ASM, APS, IOM (Brit.), IIM (India), JIM(Japan) etc. Member, or Chair of gov. panels, committees, Exec.Sec. and Governor of Acta Mat. Board.
Editor: Progress in Materials Science(PMS since 1971); Met. Trans.( since 1981),
member of various Editorial Boards in USA and abroad. Ed-in-chief, Binary Phase Diagrams.
Awards
5 gold medals: Acta Materialia(International), ASM(USA), Losana (Italy), JIM(Japan). Czochralski(E-MRS, gold after 2009). Various silver and bronze medals, and teaching awards.
Numerous  national and international awards: Hume-Rothery (TMS, USA), Chochralski (Poland), Humboldt (Germany), Sendzimir (New York), Campbell(ASM, USA), Hume-Rothery (Brit), Fulbright(USA), Gibbs(ASM, USA),Curie(Pilsudski Inst.N.Y., to receive 2014), Lee Hsun (China,to receive 2014), etc.