Axel Krieger, Engr ’08 (PhD), an associate professor of mechanical engineering and member of the Malone Center, was installed as the Carol Croft Linde Faculty Scholar on January 22, 2026. Krieger is also a faculty member in the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics.

Krieger’s lab has been at the forefront of robotic surgery, achieving multiple milestones in the rapidly evolving technology. In 2024, his team used their system to train a robot to perform three foundational surgical tasks: manipulating a needle, lifting body tissue, and suturing. In 2025, the team achieved a fully autonomous surgery with the removal of a gall bladder.

Krieger recounted his interview with Gretar Tryggvason, the head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, in 2020: “He asked me what I wanted to accomplish in my first five years at Hopkins. I said we want to have a surgical robot perform perform the first full appendectomy. We had a robot perform the first cholecystectomy, so I was just a little bit off.”

The Carol Croft Linde Faculty Scholar Award was established in 2015 through the generosity of L. Gordon Croft, Engr ’56, in honor of his daughter, Carol Croft Linde. The award is a five-year appointment that serves the Whiting School’s mission in a powerful and visible way, recognizing outstanding junior faculty for their scholarship, research, and entrepreneurial thinking.

Image Caption: Dean Ed Schlesinger and Axel Krieger.