Academician Lih J. Chen is granted the 2008 William Hume-Rothery Award by the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society (TMS), and is invited to give a keynote speech on March, 2008 in TMS Annual Meeting. Academician Chen is the first scholar in Taiwan to receive the honor.

William Hume-Rothery Award was established in 1972 by TMS in memory of the great pioneer in alloy phases—William Hume-Rothery, who was an Oxford professor and the leading figure of his time on the physics of alloys. Its purpose is to recognize exceptional scholarly contributions to the science of alloys.