In this two-for-one episode, I'm chatting with two new group leaders in the Department of Microstructure Physics and Alloy Design; Dr Paravskevas Kontis, group leader in High Performance Alloys for Extreme Environments, and Dr Jaber Mianroodi, group leader in Computational Sustainable Metallurgy. We chatted about the challenges of being a new group leader, how to delegate responsibility to group members, and the development of materials to improve resource sustainability.