Crane Lab Team
Matthew Crane
Sara Russo
Brandon Reynolds
Jessica Harms
Matthew J. Crane
Assistant Professor | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines | National Renewable Energy Lab
Matthew is an Assistant Professor in the CBE department at the Colorado School of Mines. He received his Bachelor's degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology and his M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Washington, all in Chemical Engineering. Matthew then made the enormous leap to the Chemistry department at the University of Washington, where he worked with Daniel Gamelin. There he co-founded BlueDot Photonics and served as Chief Science Officer until beginning his position at Mines. Matthew has received the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Research Fellowship, the WRF and RCSA Cottrell Postdoctoral Fellowships, the Microanalysis Society Joseph Goldstein Scholar Award, UW CoMotion Innovation Prize, and American Made Solar Prize, and was a participant in the 2019 Distinguished Young Scholar Seminar series.
Matt can be found backpacking, hiking, and biking around Denver - that is, whenever he can get away from his cats, Bean and David Bowie - as well as playing guitar or explaining the rules to a board game.
Graduate Students
Brandon Reynolds
Graduate Student | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
Brandon is a first-year PhD student in the CBE department at the Colorado School of Mines. He enjoys the school and area so much that he decided to stay after receiving both his BS in CBE and MS in Quantitative Biosciences and Engineering from Mines. While doing his MS, Brandon worked with Dr. David Marr on the aerosolization of rolling micro robots, and helped publish a paper during this time.
In his free time, Brandon can be found DMing for a rad D&D group, playing board games, or homebrewing unique beers.
Previous publications:
C.J. Zimmerman, T. Schraeder, B. Reynolds, E.M. DeBoer, K.B. Neeves, D.W.M. Marr, "Delivery and actuation of aerosolized microrobots." Nano Select (2022)
Sara Russo
Graduate Student | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
Sara is a first-year graduate student in the CBE department at the Colorado School of Mines. She joined the department after receiving her BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of New Mexico.
Sara enjoys the outdoors and loves hiking around the Denver area and, in summer, relishing in the warm weather - although it could always be a little warmer, apparently.
Previous publications:
S.J. Percival, S. Russo, C. Priest, R.C. Hill, J.A. Ohlhausen, L.J. Small, S.B. Rempe, E.D. Spoerke, "Bio-inspired incorporation of phenylalanine enhances ionic selectivity in layer-by-layer deposited polyelectrolyte films." Soft Matter 17, 6315 (2021)
Jessica Harms
Graduate Student | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
Jessica is a first-year graduate student in the CBE department at the Colorado School of Mines. Although she is Nebraska born and raised, she took the jump and moved to Colorado. Jessica received a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
In her free time she enjoys interacting with music in every form, exploring the rocky mountains, and trying all of the Colorado breweries. She'll let you know which one is the best some day.
Masters Students
Lauren Russell
Graduate Student | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
Coming soon...
Undergraduate Students
Maggie Hurst
Undergraduate Student | Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Colorado School of Mines
Coming soon...
Join the team
We're always recruiting motivated, passionate, and creative scientists and engineers!
Undergraduate Students: Exceptional and motivated undergraduates who can contribute at least 10 hours/week should contact Matthew with their resume.
Graduate Students: Please apply to the MS or PhD graduate program at Mines, and contact Matthew Crane to learn more about the research group on campus.
Materials Graduate Students: Candidates with experience in materials synthesis/characterization or electromagnetic simulations should contact Matthew with their CV.
Postdoctoral Researchers: We currently do not have funding available for postdoctoral researchers. However, we'd love to help you get some funding! If you'd like to apply for postdoctoral fellowships and want help, please contact Matthew with 1) your CV, 2) reference contact information, 3) a description of your research interests, and 4) the fellowship(s) you're interested in.