Dr. Erik Mueller is currently a Materials Research Engineer at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in Washington, DC. He had performed over 100 failure investigations of aircraft, rail, pipeline, and marine transportation accidents. In 2018, Erik won the John K. Lauber Award from the agency for his work on the Centreville pipeline accident, and he received the Silver Medal award from ASM at MS&T in Columbus for his contributions to failure analysis and ASM International. In addition, he recently won the Journal of Failure Analysis and Prevention 2018 Best Paper Award. He is a licensed professional engineer in Florida, Virginia and the District of Columbia. Dr. Mueller graduated from the University of Florida in 2007, served as the official mascot (Albert the Alligator). Erik has served on the Board of Directors for the Failure Analysis Society, has been an editor of ASM Handbook Volumes 3 and 10, volunteers with the ASM Women in Engineering Committee, teaches failure analysis to high school students at the Eisenmann Materials Camp each summer, while also teaching the PE test prep course for TMS.