Klaus-Werner Benz was born in 1938 in Berlin. He grew up in Stuttgart, where he also went to school. He studied at the Technical University of Stuttgart and received his diploma in physics in 1963. After two years of working at the research institute of the Deutsche Bundespost in Darmstadt, he started his PhD work at the Technical University of Stuttgart, which he finished in 1970. In 1972, he became head of the laboratory for semiconductor crystal growth in the physics department of TU Stuttgart. In the crystal growth laboratory Benz combined growing of bulk crystals by using the ‘Travelling Heater Method’ (THM) with epitaxial technologies, such as ‘Liquid Phase Epitaxy’ (LPE) of III-V compound semiconductors. In 1986, he moved from Stuttgart to Paderborn, where he became professor of experimental physics at the University-GH-Paderborn. Two years later Professor Benz was appointed chair of Crystallography and Materials Science at the Crystallographic Institute of the University of Freiburg as successor of Professor Nitsche. In Freiburg he extended his field of research into more areas of crystal growth and material science. He used his interdisciplinary understanding of physics and chemistry and his remarkable collaborative skills to push through founding of the Freiburger Materialforschungszentrum (Freiburg Materials Research Center) FMF during the early stage of material science in Germany. The FMF is an internationally renowned research center offering an excellent platform for interdisciplinary academia and industrial collaborations. Klaus-Werner Benz was one of the founding members of the FMF directorate and still is an active member today. In 1999, Prof. Benz was elected Vice President for Scientific Knowledge Transfer and Communications of the University of Freiburg. He used his experience of interdisciplinary research to establish new structures and strategies in Multimedia Teaching and Research at the university. Looking back at the early years of the FMF, I was lucky to start my scientific carrier under the supervision of Prof. Benz. He taught me the impact of international scientific collaborations. Prof. Benz has initiated several successful projects, some of which are still continuing, such as research on crystal growth under microgravity conditions. He was a pioneer in this field and conducted several crystal growth experiments in the D1 and D2 space missions. These were followed by the Eureca mission and lead to first experimental preparations for the International Space Station ISS. International collaboration has always been the most important part of scientific research for Prof. Benz. He started several East-West collaborations in the 1980's, long before the fall of the iron curtain such as, for example, joint research experiments where Russian satellites in cooperation with the Russian space agency were used. Several colleagues contributed to this volume dedicated to honour the scientific work of Prof. Klaus-Werner Benz in the last decades. I am much obliged for his support in the past, our fruitful discussions and his important advice today and in the years to come. We are truly grateful for his good cooperation in the past and wish him all the best for the future.