In 1988 she received her PhD[5] for research undertaken at the Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge on cooling flows.
She held this position in conjunction with her role as Public Astronomer at the Institute of Astronomy, which she first took on in 2005.
In particular, she observes the complex interplay between the hot intra-cluster medium, filaments of warm ionized gas, cold molecular clouds, star formation and the radio plasma flowing out from the central supermassive black hole.
"[9] Crawford delivers public lectures, talks, workshops and debates throughout the UK and beyond on wide range of topics within astronomy.
She is a regular in broadcast media, with numerous appearances on programmes such as In Our Time and Home Planet on BBC Radio 4.