Kevin Cleary is a research scientist with over 15 years of experience in medical research. He is currently an Associate Director at the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation at Children’s National Medical. He serves as the Engineering lead and directs the Bioengineering Team.

He received Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Duke University, and completed a Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin in 1990. His dissertation research involved software development and computer graphics for robotic manipulators. He was then a postdoctoral researcher in robotics at a Japanese research lab.

At Children’s he set up and organized the engineering team for the institute and has directed the engineering activities since the beginning. He has worked with numerous clinical departments through the hospital, including surgery, radiology, the ICUs, rehabilitation, and the ER.

His current R01 funding includes several projects related to MRI compatible robotics, focused on shoulder arthrography, pain injections, and long bone biopsy. He also led the engineering team that developed an ankle rehabilitation robot for children with cerebral palsy that is now in clinical trial.