The special section "Syntactic and Composite Foams" co-edited by Dr G. M. Gladysz (Trelleborg Offshore, USA), Prof. K. K. Chawla (University of Alabama, USA) and Prof. Aldo R. Boccaccini, has been published in J. Mater. Sci. Volume 47, Number 15, 2012. This special section contains 8 papers written ...