Craig attended Michigan State University from which he earned the Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics in June 1973.
He completed his doctorate degree at Cornell University, in Ithaca, New York, in neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, and electrical engineering and received a Ph.D. in January 1978.
The title of his thesis was "Anatomic and Electrophysiologic Studies on the Lateral Cervical Nucleus in Cat and Dog".
[1] Following graduate school, Craig spent two years in the department of physiology and biophysics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, as a post-doctoral fellow, and one year in the department of anatomy and neurobiology as research associate.
In 1981 he moved to Germany to become "Wissenschaftlicher Assistent" (research associate) in the department of physiology at the University of Kiel and then in 1983 Akademischer Rat auf Zeit (research assistant professor) at the University of Würzburg in the department of physiology.