Axel Krieger, Engr ’08 (PhD), associate professor of mechanical engineering, was installed Thursday as the Carol Croft Linde Faculty Scholar. Krieger is also a faculty member at the Malone Center for Engineering in Healthcare and 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 department head Gretar Tryggvason 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 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 Carol Croft Linde Faculty Scholar 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.