Get to know the researchers: Alasdair Crawford

Alasdair Crawford has served on the UI-ASSIST U.S. consortium team for 3 years as an energy storage scientist. Crawford is a computational scientist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), where he focuses his efforts on building physical and economic models of redox flow batteries which allow for economic optimization of their design.  

“I’ve enjoyed taking part in collaborative research with UI-ASSIST. We have worked on diverse projects, and I have felt the great impact of the effort,” said Crawford.   

Crawford attained his bachelor of science in physics from Washington State University and his master of science in physics from Portland State University. His research interests are energy storage analysis and optimization, mathematical modeling, machine learning and data visualization.  

UI-ASSIST has different project focused themes such as energy storage, which includes modeling of storage technology and optimal management for smart distribution systems. As a part of the effort, hardware models were developed to study the impact of storage systems under dynamic operation of microgrids.  

Crawford has produced similar empirical models for existing batteries systems on the grid for the Batt500 consortium, a collaboration among national laboratories and academia. He evaluated new battery technologies for economic viability and analyzed battery reliability from the experimental data.