On August 2nd, the White house hosted the fifth anniversary of the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) ushered in by President Obama, June 24, 2011. This event brought together senior Administration officials from the White House, DoD, DOE, NIST, and NSF, as well as experts from the industry, academia and government. The meeting of the minds discussed the importance of the MGI to the nation and what knowledge can be gained from its early successes as well as possible challenges that could impact this initiative. Among the selected invitees to this event is our own Prof. Somnath Ghosh, the Director of CISMMS.