I am a budding metallurgist in steel casting, with a background in heat treatment and eye for improvement. New though I am to the world of foundry, it has me hooked and I marvel at the many opportunities it holds (both professional and technical). Of particular interest at the moment is how to improve the capabilities of cast HY-systems in a realistic, industrial setting. The issues are by no means new, but finding a reliable fix across chemistries and section size is another matter entirely. This venture is exciting and frustrating and wondrous all at once, and something I hope to meaningfully contribute to over the course of my career.Being a metallurgist puts me in an interesting half-engineer/half-quality position, expanding my knowledge base considerably beyond anything I could have imagined when I was getting my education, including:- Failure analysis and corrective action implementation- Interpersonal and inter-company collaboration- Quality assurance- Thermal treatment of several alloy systems (ferrous, nickel, aluminum, copper) and hard casing- Metallography and laboratory examination- Project leadership- Technical communication for the non-technical audience