Axel Krieger, PhD, is Co-Founder and Chief Robotics Officer at Inner Logic, a Baltimore-based company building simulation and data infrastructure for the next generation of procedural medical devices and surgical robots. He is widely recognized as the pioneer behind the first autonomous laparoscopic soft-tissue surgery in a live animal model.

Krieger earned his undergraduate and master's degrees at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany, followed by a PhD from Johns Hopkins University, where he developed an MRI-guided prostate biopsy robot used in over 50 patient procedures at three hospitals. He is currently an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, with a secondary appointment in Computer Science.

Krieger is an inventor of over 30 patents and patent applications, with licensees including Siemens, Philips, and Intuitive Surgical, and was awarded the NSF CAREER Award in 2022 for advancing autonomy in soft-tissue robotic surgery. He directs the Intelligent Medical Robotic Systems and Equipment (IMERSE) Lab at Johns Hopkins.

Before Johns Hopkins, Krieger served as Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland and led the Smart Tools program at the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children's National Hospital. He also held product leadership roles at Sentinelle Medical and Hologic, guiding devices from concept through FDA approval and market launch.

Inner Logic's founding team collectively holds over 400 peer-reviewed publications and more than 40 patents, and the company raised an $11.5M seed round co-led by General Catalyst and Bison Ventures in July 2026. Inner Logic's platform enables device manufacturers to test and validate procedural devices across thousands of virtual patients overnight, replacing costly cadaver labs and animal studies.