Hareesh Tippur, McWane professor in the department, and Xinyu Zhang, assistant professor in polymer and fiber engineering, have been awarded a three-year, $300,000 National Science Foundation grant for their research, “Novel Lightweight Syntactic Foams: Synthesis, Processing and Characterization.” They are investigating ways to develop structural foams that are stronger, as well as more energy efficient and energy absorbent, than similar materials on the market. Their engineered foams — or syntactic foams — are filled with hollow micron-sized ceramic balloons that have carbon nanotubes grown via an innovative microwave irradiation process.