Robert B. Pendleton, M.D., PhD

Native to the San Diego area, Dr. Pendleton graduated from La Jolla High School in 1977 and attended college at the University of California, Davis. Always seeking the path least traveled, he spent his Junior year at the University of Lund, Sweden. In 1981 Dr. Pendleton graduated with Honors in biochemistry and entered the graduate program in chemistry. In 1982 he left Davis with a Master of Science degree in Physical Chemistry, and he entered the MD/PhD program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Eight long years later, including a move up to Chicago, Dr. Pendleton graduated with a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MD from the University of Illinois at Chicago. In Chicago, he served as President of the Alpha Chapter of the honors medical society, Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA), and at graduation, he received the William J Grove Outstanding Medical Student Award, given to one student each year for outstanding scholarship and community involvement.

Dr. Pendleton attended a one year Internal Medicine Residency at Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago, followed by a three year Ophthalmology Residency, also at Northwestern. At Northwestern he was the first resident to perform refractive surgery (astigmatic keratotomy).

On July 15th, 1994, Dr. Pendleton officially began private practice in a busy surgical practice in Buffalo, New York, where he specialized in cataract surgery, refractive surgery and corneal transplants. In September of 1996, he continued to refine his No Stitch, No Patch, No Injection cataract surgery technique in Minneapolis and the Brainerd Lakes area of Minnesota. That office had one of the first excimer lasers and it was there that Dr. Pendleton began to perform laser refractive surgery.

Tired of the hostile weather, and not terribly interested in ice fishing, in August of 1997 Dr. Pendleton returned to sunny San Diego, and in 1998 opened the doors to the Pendleton Eye Center.