Kraus was born in 1910 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Michigan in 1933.

Following the completion of his doctorate, Kraus was a member of the research team in nuclear physics at the University of Michigan, helping to design and build the school's new 100-ton cyclotron. During World War II he worked on degaussing ships for the United States Navy and on radar countermeasures at Harvard University.

After the war, Kraus joined Ohio State University, later becoming the director of the Radio Observatory and McDougal Professor (Emeritus) of Electrical Engineering and Astronomy.

In 1958, while he was at Ohio State, Dr. Kraus used the signal of radio station WWV to track the disintegration of Russian satellite Sputnik I. Kraus knew that a meteor entering the upper atmosphere leaves in its wake a small amount of ionized air. This air reflects a stray radio signal back to Earth, strengthening the signal at the surface for a few seconds. This effect is known as meteor scatter. Kraus predicted that what was left of Sputnik would exhibit the same effect, but on a larger scale. His prediction was correct; WWV's signal was noticeably strengthened for durations lasting over a minute. In addition, the strengthening came from a direction and at a time of day that agreed with predictions of the paths of Sputnik's last orbits. Using this information, Dr. Kraus was able to draw up a complete timeline of Sputnik's disintegration. His data also led him to conclude that satellites do not fail as one unit. Instead, his data indicated that the spacecraft broke up into its component parts as it moved closer to the Earth.

Murray Joslin (1976) · Henri Busignies (1977) · Daniel E. Noble (1978) · Albert Rose (1979) · Robert Adler (1980) · C. Chapin Cutler (1981) · Nathan Cohn (1982) · Herman P. Schwan (1983) · Eugene I. Gordon (1984) · John D. Kraus (1985) · James L. Flanagan (1986) · Robert A. Henle (1987) · James Ross MacDonald (1988) · Nick Holonyak, Jr. (1989) · Archie W. Straiton (1990) · John Louis Moll (1991) · George D. Forney (1992) · James H. Pomerene (1993) · Leslie A. Geddes (1994) · Robert W. Lucky (1995) · Floyd Dunn (1996) · Esther M. Conwell (1997) · Rolf Landauer (1998) · Kees Schouhamer Immink (1999) · Jun-ichi Nishizawa (2000)