 SIS was used to coat the interior surfaces of the foam with a thin layer of metal oxide “primer” that acts as a glue for attaching a monolayer of oleophilic molecules.The result is a reusable sponge capable of adsorbing up to 90 times its weight in oil.Elam was part of the team that developed the world's largest microchannel plate (MCP), a solid-state, 2-dimensional electron amplifier critical to a variety of imaging and sensing applications.