— Our Team
Meet the
Crawford Group
Principal Investigator
James Crawford
Assistant Professor
Chemical & Biological Engineering Department, Montana State University
Postdoctoral Researcher
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2022 – 2023)
Ph.D., Chemical Engineering
Colorado School of Mines (2017 – 2022)
B.S., Chemical Engineering
Montana State University (2012 – 2016)
Dr. James Crawford is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemical & Biological Engineering at Montana State University (MSU). He is a faculty collaborator in the Energy Research Institute, the Thermal Biology Institute, and the Materials Science Program.
Graduate Students
Mandiaya (Mandi) Bugri
Ph.D. Student
Materials Science
Project: Metal-organic framework photo-reactive capture.
About: Mandi received his B.S in Mechanical Engineering from the University for Development Studies (UDS) in Ghana in 2020 and is working towards his Ph.D. in Materials Science via the Chemical & Biological Engineering Department. Mandi is passionate about resources management and climate change prevention initiatives/research. In his leisure he loves to bask in nature, play the bass guitar and basketball.
Rio Moore
Ph.D. Student
Chemical Engineering
Project: Low-temperature CO₂ /H₂O splitting over confined transition metal zeolite catalysts.
About: Rio received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from MSU in 2018 and is working on a master’s degree in Environmental Engineering though the Chemical & Biological Engineering Department. He is an avid outdoorsman and has a passion for working on real world climate problems revolving around carbon dioxide.
Undergraduate Students
Hannah O’Connell
Project: Ni zeolite catalysts for reverse urea hyrdolysis.
Hannah is a chemical engineering major in the honors college at MSU. Her favorite outdoor pastimes are hiking, biking, beekeeping, and hunting. Her appreciation for nature has enhanced her desire to protect the environment. She has won funding to support her research from the Undergraduate Scholars Program and the MONT Empower Scholars program.
Brent North
Project: Understanding the similarity of metallozeolite and metalloenzyme catalysts for industrial decarbonization.
About: Brent is currently pursuing a degree in Biological Engineering from Montana State University and is graduating in 2027. He is a lover of philosophy and storytelling and is passionate about fighting for the future. Brent is participating in the First Year Undergraduate Research Experience (FYRE), part of the undergraduate scholars program (USP) at MSU.
Tommy McCarthy
Project: Computational methods to aid in the design of biomimetic catalysts
About: Tommy is pursuing a B.S. in Applied Mathematics and will graduate in the spring of 2025. Following graduation, he plans to continue his education in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at MSU. His research goals are to help make our planet cleaner, by reducing the effort needed by humans to do what nature has always done. Outside of school, he loves snow skiing, waterskiing, and mountain biking.
Former Students
Grant Baldridge
Montana State University
B.S. Electrical Engineering
Lydia Morgan
Whitman College
B.S. Biology
Crawford Group Opportunities
Our team is built of motivated PhD students interested in working at the interface of heterogeneous and enzyme catalysis. Learn More on our Opportunities page.
