Richard P. Kratz, MD, is one of the pioneers, teachers, and defenders of phacoemulsification and intraocular lenses. He is a founding member of many ophthalmic societies and associations including the American Intra-Ocular Implant Society (now the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery), the Joint Commission on Allied Personnel in Ophthalmology, and the National Ophthalmological Society. He is also a founding member of the Contact Lens Association of Ophthalmologists (CLAO) and has served as president of CLAO and of the Los Angeles Society of Ophthalmology. Dr. Kratz is a member of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the International Intraocular Implant Club, the International Ophthalmic Micro Surgical Study Group, the American Medical Association, the California Medical Association, and the Orange County Medical Association.

Dr. Kratz was born in Los Angeles in 1920. He attended medical school at the University of Southern California and did his residency at Duke University, where one of his classmates was Robert Sinskey, MD. Dr. Kratz and D. Peter Choyce, MS, FRCS, were classmates at Moorfields Hospital in London. In 1948, Kratz trained under Harold Ridley, MD, FRCS, FRC.

As a captain in the U.S. Army, Dr. Kratz was chief of Eye, Ear, and Throat at the 49th General Hospital in Tokyo, where his patients included the family of General Douglas MacArthur.

Currently, Dr. Kratz is affiliated with the University of California at Irvine in several capacities: clinical professor of ophthalmology, board member of Beckman Laser Institute, and member of the Ophthalmology Steering Committee. He is also Emeritus Clinical Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Southern California and serves on the board of Grieshaber Ophthalmic Research Foundation. He has written 77 peer-reviewed articles and given more that 1300 talks at medical meetings worldwide.

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