Kraus received bachelor's degrees in physics, astronomy, and mathematics from the University of Kansas in 2003, and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the California Institute of Technology in 2009. From 2009-2012 he was a Hubble prize postdoctoral fellow at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and from 2012-2013 he was a Clay prize postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Kraus's research focuses on the formation and evolution of planetary systems, including programs to directly image gas giant planets as they form in orbit around other stars. He also studies the process of star formation, which sets the stage upon which planet formation occurs. His research uses observations from the Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescopes, as well as large ground-based telescopes like the twin 10-meter Keck telescopes. He makes extensive use of UT’s McDonald Observatory, especially the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, and will use the future Giant Magellan Telescope that UT and its partners are constructing in South America.